DAMASCUS, Syria, April 7 (UPI) -- President Bashar Assad decreed Thursday that Kurds living in northeastern Syria are now Syrian Arabs, government news agencies reported.
The move means that thousands of Kurds who lost Syrian citizenship and became stateless after a 1962 census are citizens, CNN reported. Assad, who has long promised to regularize their status, did so as protests are sweeping the country among both Arabs and Kurds.