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The
departure lounge is tiny, but the inky stamp -
"Republic of Iraq, Kurdistan region" - on travellers'
passports is real enough.
The Magic Carpet airlines' flight from Arbil to
Beirut, Lebanon, is the first step towards Iraqi
Kurdistan achieving an international airport, as the
Kurds seek to join the modern world after three
decades of oppression and isolation.
Arbil airport is very modest. Built on a former
airstrip of the Iraqi airforce on a dusty plain west
of the ancient city, it has fewer technicians or
pilots than security staff, who wear crisp new brown
uniforms and pass on departure information by word
of mouth.
The main flight is the short hop to Baghdad. The
recently started Magic Carpet service, organised as
a charter flight by two intrepid Lebanese
entrepreneurs, is aboard a cramped 20-seat
propeller-driven aircraft. At $700 (€540, £370) for
a one-way ticket, the flight to Beirut is beyond the
pocket of most Kurds and carries a mixture of Arab,
western and Kurdish businessmen.
But the psychological impact is immense for a people
who associate aircraft with bombs. "For a long time
this was beyond our wildest dreams," says Sarang
Salar, a tele-communications manager.
Mr Salar twice recently went to Baghdad for
interviews for a scholarship to study in the US and
narrowly avoided being robbed on the highway. His
only other trip outside Iraqi Kurdistan was a brief
visit to Iran for an operation.
Despite many other pressing needs, the two Kurdish
parties have both spent millions of dollars building
separate airports. The administration of the
Kurdistan Democratic party (KDP) has been slightly
quicker in Arbil than the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) has been in converting the military
airstrip at Suleimania.
Both parties want direct international links to the
gateways of Turkey and Dubai rather than just
connections through Baghdad. Kurdish officials
believe that international connections - flights to
Amman and Istanbul are planned - would spur economic
development.
"Many countries have two or three international
airports," says Nichervan Barzani, the KDP prime
minister. "One of our problems is that we do not
have an international banking service. This is
something we urgently need. But this comes back to
the airport - we need access, and this would
encourage people to come and invest here."
Bayan Sami Abdul-Rahman, chairman of the Kurdistan
Development Corporation, says: "An international
airport in Kurdistan is a sign of the Kurds being
accepted as equal partners with the Arabs in Iraq.
Throughout Iraq's history, the Kurds have been, at
best, treated as second-class citizens, and the
region's economy has been deliberately left
under-developed by the regimes in Baghdad [before
being] destroyed by Saddam Hussein."
She adds: "The main [trade] routes to Kurdistan are
via Turkey, which is long and arduous, or Baghdad,
which is long, arduous and dangerous. This puts off
potential business partners. I get inquiries every
day from business people in London, Europe, the US
and around the Middle East asking when the airport
will open."
Kurdish officials say Baghdad has delayed permission
for international flights with technical excuses.
"We have to get certification from Iraqi Civil
Aviation Authority, as they are the only Iraqi
agency with relations to [the] International Civil
Aviation Organisation [ICAO]," says an official in
Suleimania. "Our airport here is 90 per cent
finished and built to international standards."
Baghdad's apparent reluctance reflects Arab
suspicion of Kurdish political intentions. The Kurds
want an autonomous region, with substantial powers,
in a federal Iraq despite opposition in some Arab
quarters.
The endorsement of a new constitution by the end of
this year will show if the Kurds' aspirations are
being met. But for impatient young Kurds, this seems
a roundabout route to a flight ticket. "I'm sick of
living in a box," said a young man in Suleimania who
has applied to study in Britain. "I'm just like
anyone else in the world, I want to travel a little
before I marry."
Articles published here do not necessarily reflect
views of Kurdistan Regional Government.
www.krg.org
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