Over 10,000 Kurds apply for citizenship in Syria: Interior ministry

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Syria’s interior ministry announced Friday that more than 10,000 people have applied for citizenship under a decree aimed at restoring nationality to stateless Kurds affected by a controversial 1962 census.

The ministry said it had received 2,892 family applications covering 10,516 individuals “from Kurdish citizens covered by” the provisions of Presidential Decree No. 13 of 2026.

The decree, introduced in January amid clashes between Damascus and Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria (Rojava), is supposed to cancel the effects of the 1962 census in Hasaka province that stripped an estimated 120,000 Kurds of citizenship and left generations without legal status under the former Syrian regime.

According to the ministry, Hasaka province recorded the highest number of applications with 2,772, followed by Aleppo with 75 applications and Damascus with 32. Additional applications were also submitted in Raqqa and Deir ez-Zor.

The new government in Damascus and its regional ally, Turkey, have repeatedly said that Kurds who were deprived of citizenship under the former government will be granted Syrian nationality.

In April, Syrian Kurds across the country began visiting civil registration offices to submit citizenship applications after decades of statelessness.

The 1962 census created two categories of stateless Kurds. One group was classified as “foreigners” and received limited identification documents, while another group, known as “maktoumeen,” was left without any official records.

Both groups faced decades of restrictions under the former regime, including denial of access to education, healthcare, employment, and property ownership.