Egyptian Researcher: Kurds Are Among Region’s Oldest Peoples and Have Suffered a Long History of Injustice

SOHR's Website

Aleppo city following the recent escalation.

Egyptian researcher and journalist Islam Azaz al-Samti has stated that the crimes committed against Kurdish civilians in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo constitute a systematic campaign targeting a core component of the region’s population. He held extremist groups responsible for the serious violations committed against civilians.

In a post published on Facebook, al-Samti said that Ahmed Mansour, an Egyptian national from Alexandria, is among the extremist figures who joined hardline religious movements following Egypt’s 2011 revolution. He noted that Mansour later fled to Syria, where he appeared in several videos containing threats and incitement to violence. Al-Samti pointed to Mansour’s recent appearance in a video linked to the killing of a Kurdish female fighter as evidence of his involvement in cross-border terrorist activities.

Al-Samti emphasised that the Kurdish people are among the oldest peoples in the region and represent a fundamental pillar of Middle Eastern civilisation. He noted that they have suffered historical injustice since the Sykes–Picot Agreement, which divided Kurdish lands among several states. He stressed that the Kurds possess legitimate political and national rights, including the right to establish their own state.

He also highlighted the significant contributions Kurds have made to the cultural and intellectual life of Egypt and the Arab world. Al-Samti cited prominent figures of Kurdish origin in Egyptian literature and arts, including Ahmed Shawqi, Abbas Mahmoud al-Aqqad and Suhair al-Babli, noting their role in shaping Egypt’s cultural consciousness.

He further remarked that while the Kurds have enriched the region with culture and literature, extremist violence has been exported to their areas, referring to Ahmed Mansour as a product of radical movements that emerged during the Islamic revival of the late 1970s.

Al-Samti concluded by stating that the Kurds today, particularly through the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), are confronting extremist organisations that threaten social cohesion and security. He added that the situation in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo reflects a broader campaign by such groups against pluralism and coexistence in Syria.

Ahmed Mansour was recognised from one of the videos circulated around social media, where he was laughing and hugging one of his militant friends after another one of them threw off the body of a female Kurdish fighter from a building during the recent attacks of the Damascus government's forces and the internal security forces (Asayish) in the two Kurdish neighbourhoods Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in Aleppo, Syria.



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