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Iraq's Kurdistan region
has achieved a degree of self-rule that Kurds in
neighboring states like Turkey and Iran can only
dream about. That is making Erbil a magnet for
Kurdish writers and intellectuals from around the
world. They come here to meet, publish books and,
some say, get inspired to press for similar freedoms
at home.
Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq, 9.Dec (RFE/RL) --
There is an orchestra on the stage playing a
traditional Kurdish anthem as writers from the
Kurdish regions of Turkey and Iran and the Kurdish
diaspora meet in Erbil.
The occasion is to award a medal to Kurdish novelist
Mehmed Uzun, who currently lives in Sweden.
But just as importantly, the event offers the
Kurdish intellectuals the chance to enjoy a freedom
of national expression unheard of in other parts of
the region.
Here and across Kurdish-administered northern Iraq,
the government actively supports Kurdish writers by
subsidizing the publication of their books. That
makes Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region the center of
a cultural resurgence that could have significant
repercussions in Kurdish areas of neighboring
states.
Ahmad Ghazi is a Kurdish writer in Iran. He says
Kurds there are closely watching what is happening
in Iraq's Kurdistan region.
"What is happening here in Iraqi Kurdistan has a
great effect on all sides of our lives in other
parts of Kurdish regions --
in Iran, Turkey, Syria, and elsewhere, especially
from the point of view of culture," he said.
"Really, the Kurdish people in Iran are mostly
looking at this side of the world, not at that side.
I mean, we are mostly dependent on Iraqi Kurdistan,
not on Tehran."
Writers say the number of books and newspapers
published in Kurdish-administered northern Iraq has
burgeoned since the region fell out of Baghdad's
direct control in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War. The
books not only find readers among Kurds in Iraq but
also move with travelers across the borders of
Turkey, Iran, and Syria.
Now, following the U.S.-led toppling of Saddam
Hussein in 2003, Iraqi Kurds are determined to
maintain their current degree of autonomy within a
new federal Iraq. That autonomy -- which some here
describe as semi-independence -- is marked not only
by self-government but also by five state
universities teaching in the Kurdish language.
All that is in contrast to the much more tightly
controlled situation of Kurds in Turkey and Iran.
Ghazi says the Iraqi Kurds' success is now
encouraging Iranian Kurds to press for changes: "The
Iranian Kurds are [becoming] more courageous. They
come to the streets. There is a big movement among
the Kurds for having some federation, some federal
system in Iran. The latest news that I can give you
is that a front of all the [Iranian] Kurds is coming
into being. The parliamentarians, the intellectuals,
the poets, the writers are coming together little by
little to make a big front."
Hundreds of Iranian Kurdish students demonstrated at
the University of Tehran on 4 December, shouting
slogans supporting the "right to self-determination
for Kurdistan."
Tehran permits Kurdish-language publishing, but
cracks down on journals it considers as "upsetting
public opinion or spreading separatist ideas."
In Turkey, the use of the Kurdish language in
publishing and broadcasting had been banned until
recently, when parliament passed constitutional
reforms to enhance freedom of expression.
But rights groups such as the PEN American Center
say writing in Kurdish or about Kurdish subjects
remains a sensitive activity in Turkey and can lead
to arrest if the writing is considered separatist.
Ankara battled with the secessionist Kurdistan
Workers Party (PKK) in the 1980s and 1990s, during
which more than 30,000 people died.
Tosine Rashid, a Kurd from Armenia who now lives in
Australia, agrees that many Kurdish intellectuals
now view the Kurdistan region of Iraq as a new
cultural beacon: "Here we get support from the
government to publish our books. That's the reason
for us that it is much easier to publish here. You
know, this center for Kurdish culture is a good
example for all Kurdish people to follow -- you
know, the political system, the cultural
development. They are all a good example for us."
He notes that Kurdish writers in Armenia enjoy the
freedom to publish in their language but lack a
sufficient audience to distribute their work to. In
recent years, he has made repeated trips to publish
his work in Erbil instead.
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