Thousands of Kurds could awaken against Syrian regime

More than 50,000 mourners marched through the streets of Qamishli, a city in the Kurdish northeast, to mark the funeral of Mashaal Tammo, who was killed on Friday when masked gunmen burst into his flat.

Anger over the death of one of their most popular leaders turned to rage after Syrian security forces opened fire on the funeral procession on Saturday, killing at least five of the mourners.

Mr Tammo's death prompted widespread calls from senior figures in the Kurdish community to join the civilian uprising against Mr Assad, a development that could seriously weaken the president given the challenges he is already facing elsewhere in the country.

Fares Tammo, the dead man's son, urged Syria's 1.7 million Kurds to throw their support behind the revolt and predicted that their participation would prove the decisive factor in overthrowing Mr Assad.

"My father's assassination is the screw in the regime's coffin," he told the New York Times. "They made a big mistake by killing my father."

Until Mr Tammo's death, the minority had only played a peripheral role in the uprising with only a handful of Kurds among the 2,900 people the UN says have been killed in Syria since protests against the regime erupted in March.

Likewise, demonstrations in Kurdish cities have only been small and the regime has been careful to use less force against them in order not to provoke the community.

Discontent towards the regime has always existed among the Kurds, who are victims of decades of discrimination by Syria's Alawite Shia elite. More than 500,000 Kurds were denied citizenship by the state, meaning they could not travel abroad, own property or enrol in school.

But they have also been wary of the would-be revolution, which is dominated by Syria's Sunni Arab majority. Many Kurds believe they could fare as badly under a Sunni Arab government as under an Alawite Shia one.

Some observers say they fear the Kurds could launch a separate insurrection that could lead to clashes with both Sunni Arabs and Alawite Shia.

So far, Kurds have resisted joining the Syrian National Council, a new opposition coalition that is seeking to present itself as an alternative government to the Assad regime because it is dominated by Sunni Arabs.

Fearing a repeat of the precedent set in Libya, The Syrian government yesterday threatened "tough measures" against any foreign government that formally recognised the coalition.

President Assad himself reportedly told a visiting delegation of mostly Latin American countries that Syria aimed to make political reforms and then end armed presence. Past promises of sweeping reforms have not been realised.

Security forces shot dead at least three people at the funeral of a youth yesterday who died a day before in prison, according to rights groups.