Kameran used to be disappointed every time he proposed to a girl, because he is a stateless Syrian Kurd. All the attempts he made to resolve his legal status were in vain, and his suffering continued.
Kameran Mahmoud bin Muhammad was born in Qamishli/Qamishlo in 1979. His father and grandfather were stateless Syrian Kurd from the maktumin class and so is he. He spoke to STJ field researcher through an interview conducted in March 2018:
"My father and grandfather were maktumeen, while my mother was a Syrian citizen. Before the census my father had an ID and a military booklet, but after it, officials took the ID, arguing that it was forged. We suffered a lot AS stateless, as we could not complete our education and were not entitled to register our property under our names.”
Following the issuance of Decree No. 49, on naturalization of the ajanib in 2011, Kameran submitted his papers to the Civil Status department in Qamishli City, but all his attempts failed, while many of the ajanib al-Hasakah managed to obtain citizenship:
“About three and a half years ago, we heard that a number of Syriac and Arab maktumeen families, just like us, submitted their papers and managed to obtain citizenship, while we were unable to do so. We are deprived of everything, even traveling abroad, or owning property. Most of our possessions were registered under the name of my mother, who had the Syrian nationality, and I couldn’t transfer these properties to my name after her death, which means that the Syrian regime can in anytime Seize them. My legal status puts me in many other troubles, especially in marriage. No girl agrees to marry me because I’m a maktum.”