An unknown fate befell thousands of university students in Al-Hasakah

Yekiti Media

The Faculties of Economics and Civil Engineering, the Institute of Technical Observers and the headquarters of the Al-Furat University branch in Al-Hasakah were destroyed during the events of the Industrial Prison in the Ghweran neighborhood in mid-January 2022 .

Since then, Al-Furat University decided to postpone the university exams in the colleges and institutes of Al-Hasakah Governorate.

The university attributed the reason for the delay to the fighting that took place between ISIS cells and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

US Apache helicopters bombed the Faculties of Economics and Civil Engineering in the city of Hasakah, after a number of ISIS militants who were deployed in several neighborhoods of Hasaka, most notably Ghweran, had fortified them.

Two weeks after the exams were postponed, on 06.02 2022, the armed forces of the PYD administration prevented 2,500 students and administrative staff from entering the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering in order to resume their remaining exams courses that were suspended after the industry prison events.

Al-Furat University decided to postpone the exams scheduled for the Agricultural Engineering branch in the 2021-2022 academic year session until further notice.

The Ministry of Higher Education in the Syrian regime’s government stated in a statement on its Facebook page that “The suspension of exams came after SDF targeted the buildings of the Faculties of Civil and Agricultural Engineering, Economics and the Engineering Technical Institute, looted and theft the assets in those buildings, and prevented students of the Faculty of Agricultural Engineering and administrative and teaching staff from entering the building college to take exams”.

And the Director of the Al-Hasakah branch of Al-Furat University, Dr. Jamal Al-Abdullah, said in a statement to the Syrian regime news agency (SANA) that “The postponement is the second for the exams of the first semester of the university faculties and institutes affiliated with Al-Furat University in Al-Hasakah Governorate.”

(N.H), a student at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, told Yekiti Media, “Our fate is yet not clear, as we have not resumed our courses yet, and we have not yet taken the first semester exams, despite the approaching date of the second semester university exams and the end of the school year.”

(N.H) expressed her fear of transferring the university’s courses to the city of Deer Al Zour, which is under the control of the regime forces and Iranian militias.

For his part, the student at the Faculty of Economics (B.F) said, “We have heard rumors that the faculties of the Al-Hasakah branch of the Euphrates University will be transferred to the city of Deir ez-Zor.”

He added, “If this is done, most of the Kurdish students will not persevere because of the Iranian militias’ control of the city of Deer Al Zour on the one hand, and the danger of the road from Hasaka to Deer Al Zour on the other hand.”

The activist (D.K.) confirmed to Yekiti Media that “the regime and the administration of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) agree to strike the educational process in the Kurdish regions.”

He also added, “After hitting education in its basic stages (from primary to secondary), the PYD administration aimed to strike higher education in the universities and institutes of the Al-Hasakah branch of the Euphrates University, thus eliminating the last links of education in the Kurdish region, under the direction of the Syrian regime.”

The activist (D.K.) continued, “The system can transfer courses and exams to the security square, where there are many large institutions that are suitable for this purpose as an emergency.”

And he added, “There are many security and economic agreements between the regime and the PYD administration, and there are dozens of Syrian state institutions in the Kurdish areas, but the two parties do not agree to resume courses and take exams. Rather, it is more correct to say that the two sides agree to strike the educational process in the Kurdish region.”

The number of students in university colleges in Al-Hasakah is about 30,000 students, distributed among eight university colleges and three institutes.