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I covered war in Iraq
for media agencies such as BBC and CNN; some two
years on I am on my way to visit south Kurdistan and
Iraq. This time not purely for media work but to
present papers to Kurdistani universities as well as
to Baghdad to talk about diaspora communities and
examine how the identity changes when they migrate
to new locales. Next to me as I write there are two
young Iraqi Kurds, who seem very happy and excited
that they are about to see their families after
three years of distance and separation. Hiwa from
Dohuk mistook me for a northern Kurd from Turkey by
my Kurmanji and he was keep talking about PKK. He
told me of what he remembered when the Saddam army
chased him and his family across the border to North
Kurdistan (Turkey). Our small plane landed in
Diyarbakir airport and I left them but not before we
exchanged telephone numbers and I promised them a
visit in weeks to come.
Meeting two friends who were waiting for me we head
for Diyarbakir’s town centre; I have been to north
Kurdistan many times before so I didn’t plan to go
sight-seeing. Getting near the centre you can’t miss
huge red sign reading: I am so happy being a Turk -
what Ataturk said and is now immortalised in almost
any town in Turkey’s Kurdistan. Chi xana, the tea
house near the Kurdish Cultural Centre which I
frequent whenever I am in Diyarbakir, is thick with
smoke and full of young men and women debating or
engrossed in their mobile phones. My next stop was
Dijla University, where I hoped to present a paper
on identity and its changes in the diaspora;
however, apparently after reading my abstract the
university officials told me they can’t allow me to
present at their university, as it was politically
sensitive topic and I had to bring official
permission from the Ministry of Education in Ankara.
I left Diyarbakir for Mardin, near the Syrian
border, thinking all the while that there is a much
longer road for Turkey to take in order to bring
about real changes in how the government thinks
about identity and their treatment of non-Turkish
minorities to flourish in their sense of belonging
and cultural identity.
Mardin is a beautiful, historic town built in the
13th century, its town centre and shops dominated by
Arabic speakers who claim they come from Syria and
Jazira town. Walking through the bazaar and speaking
to the locals almost everyone told me they are in
fact either mixed raced Arab and Kurd, or their
grandparents were Kurds from Jazira but after moving
to Mardin now speak Arabic for trading purposes as
well their native Kurdish and of course Turkish. The
most interesting part was to observe that most
children were talking in Arabic with their parents.
In contrast, I had noticed in other towns in north
Kurdistan Turkish was used as the primary language
inside and outside the family.
I spent a day in a village near Kazimia Castle
speaking to the Kurdish villagers who were all from
the same clan, and were very keen to find out about
Kurds of Iran after I told them that I am an Iranian
Kurd. They were surprised when I said there are
estimated 7 to 8 million Kurds lives in Iran and
also a large Kurdish community who speaks the
Kurmanji dialect. They were full of questions such
why we don’t hear much about the Iranian Kurds and
wanting to know if we are treated the same as the
Kurds in Turkey, and many more questions which I
felt I wouldn’t be able to answer with any real
sense of knowledge, being only one person with one
set of experiences. I was almost forced, by
typically strong Kurdish hospitality, to stay for
dinner by heval Boran, in his rather small houses
which is shared with his family of 8 people. His
family were really trying to offer whatever they
could to make me feel comfortable and the children
didn’t leave my side for whole time I was there, and
were keen to pose for my camera.
Silopi, like any other border town in the world, was
chaotic, dirty, and its streets packed with lorries
and oil tankers bringing oil from south Kurdistan
into Turkey where it’s refined and turned to petrol
to be returned to Iraq. I wasn’t allowed to walk
through the border there, but had to hire a car to
take me over; after some time waiting to do the
paper work and many aggressive looks and questions
from Turkish border guards at the last Turkish check
point, we dealt with an officer who appeared to be
very annoyed with a truck driver, whose flag of
Kurdistan and picture of Mala Mustafa Barzani, the
founder of Kurdistan Democratic Party, was
overlooking the Turkish flag and Ataturk’s portrait.
Dohuk, stronghold of the KDP, is traditionally known
as the best policed town in Kurdistan. The people of
Dohuk, who speak Kurmanji, have close economical and
trade links with their follow Kurds to the north, in
Turkey’s Kurdistan. Although I had been stopped for
taking photographs and had my press card car
fly-checked by the police in the city, I found the
people of Dohuk very welcoming and friendly. At
times I was mistaken for a Kurd from Turkey because
my Kurmanji did not sound local.
Dohuk has recently seen fighting when, on the 07- 12
this year, four people were killed when members of a
Kurdish Islamic party that is challenging the
dominant Kurdish bloc in current Iraqi elections
were attacked by mobs and young angry students. This
event was still hot news when I was there, my
hotelier told me that one senior official of the
Kurdistan Islamic Union was among those killed when
angry youths threw stones and set fire to party
buildings in six towns. Kurdish regional president
Masoud Barzani appeared on television and condemned
the violence. Attacks also took place in Arbil, the
Kurdistan capital, and Zakho near the Turkish
border, as well as three other towns.
He also went on to say how the KDP and PUK fought a
civil war in the 1990s, but that they have set aside
rivalries, hoping to gain as much power as possible
in Iraqi national politics through elections that
have followed Saddam Hussein's overthrow in 2003. He
said “we must not give room for another civil war,
it will only make Iran, Syria and especially Turkey
happy”.
Dohuk University is built just outside the town on a
massive piece of a land; signs of active
construction work are still visible in parts of the
campus. The university is divided between 5 schools;
I visited art and langue as well as policy and
economics, where I met some really interesting
students with a variety of stories to tell. Some
just came back from years of living in exile in
Iran, where they fled when the Barzani tribe lost
its armed struggle in Iraq and many were forced to
migrate to Iran’s main cities in Karj, Tehran, Asfan
and so on in 1970s; others were large groups of
Syrian Kurds who had come specifically to study
there, as well some from Turkeys Kurdistan and a few
from Iran.
The university has a small language department;
visiting one of the lessons I was asked to talk to
the students about my work and respond to there
questions in English. The most interesting part was
that from a total of 47 students, 39 one them were
female. When I asked the reason behind it most said
because women are better in languages. I then asked
them if this is how their society looks at gender,
and they replied that they were told like this -
that females are suited for certain careers and not
for others. Still, it was heartening to see so many
young women, the voice of a new generation in free
Kurdistan, actively pursuing education which will
give them the opportunities they have been denied up
until now.
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As a result of 1991 and the creation of the
semi-independent Kurdistan, most of the teaching and
text books are in Kurmanji written in Arabic fonts,
which looked very interesting to me as my exposure
to Kurmnaji is with the Latin alphabet. Shivan was
my guide through the university, himself an MA
history student. He told me how difficult it is to
be accepted as an MA student as you would need to
have 2 years of work expertise such as university
work or teaching.
I arrived in Hawler (Arbil), which is considered
Kurdistan’s capital city, after a proper check at
the main check point where a very polite police
officer welcomed me: Bakir bit to free Kurdistan. In
town I noticed a large presence of armed forces,
army offices and traffic police on the main streets;
a taxi driver told me that Hawler nowadays is like a
large army headquarters, most of which was KDP
offices flying the yellow flags, and pictures of
Mala Mustafa Barzani and current Kurdistan president
Masud Barzani. People of Hewler have a reputation
for being very friendly and welcoming, and taking
pictures of the street life I was always greeted
with respect and constantly offered drinks of tea.
Hawler castle is the most important land mark to the
Kurdish capital; some few thousand live and work
inside the surrounding walls. Some complained that
the regional government wants them to leave as they
want to transform the area into tourist attraction;
it is also easy to observe the downside of
development and ‘progress’, when many regular people
do not get its benefits. Around the Galai is a
famous hot spot for young people, mainly men, to
walk around while eating corn seed and drinking
fresh juice. Its lively atmosphere is one of social
life and getting back to a feeling of normalcy after
so much media attention in recent months.
Election posters still hang fresh almost every
where, Kurdistan flags are apparent in every corner,
and, tied with car radio aerials, even some bicycles
are flying it! The two main Kurdish political
parties choose to be one list to gain the maximum
votes in 3 provinces in Kurdistani regions.
The next day, and before leaving Hawler, I went to
Sallahadin University of Hawler, which was large and
overcrowded. Students, like those everywhere on
campuses around the world, were walking slowly from
one side of the university to another in groups 2 or
3, while cars cruised, observing the opposite sex.
It was heartening to see such signs of universal
adolescent behaviour. I met with Hawar, who I had
previously arranged to meet to show me around. He
too was waiting to be accepted as an MA student in
history. He said you have two options, either you go
to the university officials and they will tell you
how good is their work and how much success they had
or you simply go to the students and they will give
90 degrees opposite to what the officials told you,
then he started telling how corrupt the universities
are and how they are run by deans who only care
about figures rather then real achievements. He give
me some examples of intellectuals who had come back
from Europe with the aim of teaching at the
university but who were turned down because they
were considered a ‘threat’ to those have hang on to
the posts. Hawar told me he thinks they as students
deserve new, young and educated people to lead their
universities. In speaking to such students, I also
learned that despite the images of modernity I
witnessed, there is a long way to come in reforming
systems in Kurdistan. Let us hope that the
commitment and enthusiasm of such young people as
Hawar will help to develop these changes.
To find out more I went to the Social Science
department to speak to the dean and tutors and find
out more about what they teach. Although I was given
permission to sit in some of the classes, when I
asked about how the university is doing and tried to
find out about their plans and future projects,
largely I had to agree with Hawar as I was told very
briefly how great they are doing but not much about
there future plans as they said they look great and
will be running very soon.
Although I planned on visiting Kirkuk and Baghdad on
my trip, I choose to go to Suleymaniyah in order to
be in Hallabja to witness the sentencing of war
criminals. We had to cross from kurdish town of
Kirkuk, a city which is hotly contested by Kurds,
Arabs and nowadays by Turkmen as well. It has large
oil fields whose flames were noticeable from
kilometres way. Getting close to Suleymaniyah, when
the driver and passenger find out there is no one
from Hawler in the car, they start telling jokes
about the Hawlerians. People in Suleymaniyah are
famous for their subversive and sometimes black
humour.
I chose to go to Hallabja to cover the story of how
the European Court in Den Haague is about to
recognize the Anfal as a genocide against the
Kurdish people. My first stop is to see the Hallabja
Memorial Centre, which was closed for refurbishment,
(unfortunately, due to the historical timing), then
I visited the town’s cemetery where most of the
fifty thousand which were buried in mass graves are
now buried. One of them as small as 3x4, is a grave
to 1500 people. Looking at this, and seeing
uncounted numbers of white grave stones, I just
couldn’t accept so many thousand people at the hands
of the Iraqi regime and that Mr Franc Van Anraat was
acquitted of genocide charges but was sentenced to
15 years in prison. The Dutch court found him guilty
of complicity in war crimes for selling more than
1,000 tons of chemicals to the former Iraq
government, used in gassing Kurds in Iraq also in
Iran.
There was loud music and groups of men dancing in
traditional Kurdish style outside Hallabja’s
chemical support office, but then it was a very
emotional and sad moment when the group of people
gathered inside the office to watch the court
hearing live on Kurdish TV. Talking to people on the
street I was invited to meet some families who lost
many members; the few survivors told how the
chemical attacks happened. Shokri, a woman in her
50s, lost 6 members of her family. She said:
“Hallabja was hit by Saddam because the Iranian,
army helped by PUK Kurdish peshmargas, took over the
town and pushed Iraqi out of Hallabja”. She was
crying, saying many people wouldn’t get killed if
peshmerga forces had allowed people to leave the
town. “I don’t know why they sealed around the town
and didn’t give permission for us to leave before
the bombing started”. Her story was reiterated by
others who I met later.
Almost whoever I spoke with felt the Kurdish
authorities and western powers used Hallabja for
their political purposes and in particular USA, as
one of their cases to justify war in Iraq. The
streets were dirty and apparently in need of a lot
of work; water and sewage systems were in very bad
shape and electricity was only available half the
day and early evenings. These people, although now
recognised as victims of the most profound human
rights abuses, continue to suffer its consequences,
ignored by the world.
Spending the night in a local home I got to know
more from the family and their guests about Hallabja;
how it has been forgotten. They told me terrible
stories about when they were migrated to Iran and
many died because of lack of medicine and proper
shelter. I met up with a nearby town’s human rights
worker who works in a branch of a human rights
office set up by the PUK. He said something very
interesting, although the way it was said was funny.
He told me because we are not independent and there
is a lot of corruption within the system, and at
times complaints would not go far as the accused use
their party connection and the matter gets
‘dissolved’ by itself. He said: “when we receive a
complaint such as torture or unlawful imprisonments
for member of the public we open a file and send
through various channels to be examined and
investigated - at the end the system will confront
the individual and ask if he or she has been
involved in torture. When it’s denied by the person
the complaint will get back to us and we will close
the file due to lack of evidence. But the sad thing
is the member of the public who launched the
complaint most of the time get terrorised even more
as an act of revenge and get beating up even more
why he or she complained in the first place”.
Leaving Hallabja to Pinjavin and Bash mage near to
Iranian Kurdistan, passengers had told me how many
towns and village was flattened to the ground by
Saddam Hussein and how thousands from the locality
were never seen after Anfal. Two men in their 50s
were almost shouting that Saddam dare speak out at
the court and how he has groups of lawyers. One of
them was so angry, saying they should cut pieces by
pieces from him and put salt in his injuries to make
him feel the pain caused by how he killed 18200
Kurds in Anfal - 5000 in Hallabja and thousands from
the Barzani family and Iraqi Shiits. “How Saddam and
his circle have not yet been found guilty in the
Iraqi court? Why and how the priority of the Iraqi
court was given to the killing of over 100 Shiia and
Sunni Arabs in the village of Dujel, not to the
genocide of Kurds by the former Iraqi government?”,
he wondered incredulously. He shook his head, saying
that he just doesn’t understand.
I went to Bashmage to make a documentary about the
mountain porters. I had previously shot a short film
while I was in Iran in 2004, but wanted to do
something more with the topic. Young men, mostly
Iranian Kurds, every day smuggle litres of oil and
petrol from Iran to Iraq, to a country who itself is
one of the largest oil resources in the world. There
is corruption at the border, the Iranian guards are
taking money from people in the day light even while
we were filming from distance. As far as the oil
smuggling was concerned, there were large groups of
porters who had carried two 20 litre tanks of oil in
their backs, using more hidden spots and back hills
to run through the border in order to escape arrest
and court fine by the Iranian soldiers.
Sulaymaniyah has expanded so big that the nearby
hills and villages are nowadays considered part of
the town. In recent years many had left their
villages and small towns nearby and settled in
Sulaymaniya. Traditionally this town is known as
heartland of intellectuals, and has seen many
demonstrations and civil rights movements which
contributed to some reforms. For two nights I was a
guest of IWPR (Iraq war and peace Reporting), Iraq’s
War and Peace Reporting Centre aiming to train
journalists in the area as well as publishing almost
daily reports about the situations in Iraq and
Kurdistan. My host Jessica had a lot to say about
her experiences and her view about Kurdistan and
Iraq. She said she is aware of the fact there are
strong feelings of nationalism, which can be
dangerous and may undermine the rights of other
ethnic minorities if and when Kurdistan get its
independence. She said: “I really like it here,
people are really friendly and hospitable, I have
many friends but there is not much social life for
women outside family life and few other open air
spaces”. She also said “everyone wants you to be
100% Kurdish”.
The next day I had a presentation at the
Sulaymaniyah University to talk about Kurdish media
and its impact on other parts of Kurdistan. My focus
was on Kurdistan TV and Kurd Sat TV and some radio
and newspapers. The university was so busy that you
had to push your way in order to get through, the
size of some of the classes was around 80 students.
Students were very keen to find out the way media
worked outside of Kurdistan and were fighting each
other to get a time to put their questions forward.
Latter that day I agreed to give an hour live radio
interview to radio NAWA considered one of the very
few semi-independent media sources in Kurdistan, and
originally set up by the help of the USA before the
Iraq war. It is now funded by some NGO’s and the
radio is very popular with people Programmes such as
without censorship, gave people the opportunity to
discuss matters never before said. Talking about how
Kurdish media is independent and discussing the
relationship between the two main satellite TV
channels and KDP and PUK brought a large wave of
telephone calls from listeners, agreeing and
disagreeing with the topic. It made me really happy
to see that a platform such as this radio is giving
the voice to people of Kurdistan.
Hawlati is another example of free Kurdish media, so
I went over to visit their office. I had written
articles for Hawlati in the past ,Shawn told me more
about the paper and its new management, I put an
idea to them as in the days to come I will return to
Hawler, the stronghold of KPD, accompanied by a
Hawalti reporter, and will seek to see Dr Kamal
Syied Quder who is sentenced to 30 years.
Taking a taxi inside the town my driver was a young
man, who was very happy with life there. A few flags
of Kurdistan inside his taxi and outside and many
pictures of actresses and pop stars decorated the
car. He said he is grateful to PUK and KDP for
giving him such comfort. He said: “I am free to say
whatever I like and do. My life is just perfect, I
have a car, money and most nights I drink a quarter
bottle of whisky with my friends”. He looked at me
and said: “The only thing missing is women, you
can’t get this easily. I mean you can but you can’t
be with them the way you should be, you know what I
mean? I have a girl who I kissed a few times but no
more, there is no place for such things, or at least
not for us. I have to meet her in the dark near to
her brother’s house when she can disappear for some
time and meet me at that spot”.
Although later many university students told me its
difficult to have open relationships, some boys told
me these days you can do whatever you like. “Do it
and just keep it quite”. Some of the girls were
complaining how some boys use their mobile phones
and take pictures of them and send to each other
some time even with graphic some where they change
the picture and make it look as something else. They
said there has been one suicide over picture
messaging when a picture of a young lady was sent
around between young men, and later one the girl
killed herself. The violation of privacy which this
represents is one thing, made worse in a situation
where feelings of shame and secrecy hold influence.
It was obvious that the experiences and freedom of
young boys and girls was different with respect to
this issue of relationships.
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The Kurdish Heritage Institute, has gathered a small
but very influential group of intellectuals trying
to bring about a rich and unique archive of books
and music. It is run by Kak Mazaher Xalagi, himself
a Kurdish singer from Iranian Kurdistan. He told me:
“the opportunity of coalition forces and US gave to
Kurdish people is unique and we need to use this
opportunity to bring our long dreamed independent
Kurdistan to reality and Kurds from all parts of
Kurdistan should make contribution to this small but
free part of Kurdistan in order to expanded this to
other parts”.
I spent the night among a family of Kurdish of
Jewish origin, whose son is my friend in London. The
mother Haji Amina, told me about her family and how
some of them, including her father, became Muslim
while others didn’t and left Kurdistan for Israel.
Her husband, also Haji, thanked God for being
Muslim, and doesn’t agree with what is going on in
Israel in respect of the Palestinians. Most of the
night was passed by responding to their questions
about Israel and Palestine, where I spent 2 weeks
earlier this year.
Once again I am in Hawler, and it seems I have
entered another country before mobile roaming
service existed. My kurdistani mobile which is
giving to me by a friend won’t work here as in
Sulaymaniyah, where the network is called Asia Cell.
This network is blocked from working in Arbil, and
vice-versa, seemingly for political reasons. There
is little cooperation between authorities on
coordinating business plans. Hawler Mobile network
called Korek Mobile also wont work in PUK area. This
has become a national joke in Kurdistan.
Inside our 5 seat private taxi from Sulaymaniyah to
Hawler there was debate about Kurdistan’s situation,
the election and Dr Kamal’s arrest. Our driver was a
funny man who just seemed to have no patience with
other drivers on the road, he kept honking his horn
and pushing through. He said: “if this guy Dr Kamal,
or whoever his name is, did swear at him the way he
did to Sarok (Masud Barzini) I would go to the
airport and wait for him and with the hand gun I
have at home I would shoot him dead, how can someone
call me all this? No way”. The other passenger was
very hopeful about Kurdistan’s future, he was
saying: “no matter how bad or corrupted the
political parties are, they are still better than
Saddam and Arab authorities. Yes we all see there
problems but it will be sorted in time, we shouldn’t
just blame the Kurdish government”. He said: “we
have a lot of enemies, all our neighbours are
waiting like hungry wolves to tear us apart,
especially Iran and in particular Turkey, these days
even Iraqi Arabs”.
I am determined to see Dr Kamal Syied Qudar, who has
been kept in special detention for the past 2
months. Dr Kamal Sayid Qudar, an Austrian citizen
and law expert has been sentenced to 30 years
imprisonment by Arbil (Hawler) court. He published a
number of articles in which he criticised the
Barzani family and Kurdistan’s leader Masoud Barzani,
also talking about the presence of Israelis and
their future in Kurdistan. He also spoke about
Sheikh Zana’s terror group, who killed a large
number of people in the last few years before they
were arrested by KDP.
Apart from his sisters and some relative he has not
been visited by the press. I was the first
independent visitor which was allowed to see him; I
was expecting there would be no chance to see him
and even advised not to go. I was informed by
Hawalti newspaper that he has been kept at Hawler
central police station. With me was Kak Faisal, a
reporter from Hawalti newspaper, Kurdistan’s most
successful paper. We went to the station and asked
to see him, and I was surprised quickly I managed to
visit Dr Kamal; I was not sure if it was my
international press card or because I was living in
UK and visiting Kurdistan, but the official told me
there no restriction if himself agrees to see me.
They shortly came back to me saying he had agreed to
meet me. I met him after he finished teaching
English to his 32 new students. His captors and
himself told me that he volunteered to teach English
as he did not have much to do and its his duty to
teach where ever he was.
Our minder never left the room even though we
complained of his presence. I was not allowed to
write notes but our guard jokingly said that I can
remember them in my head and write them down later.
The young minder apologised by saying he had been
order to do so. Dr Kamal looked very upset and, as
he said later, pissed off. He was talking constantly
and had a lot to say especially about the way he was
sentenced at the court.
He said: “the day I was taken to the court I was
lied to by the authorities”. He was apparently told
he was being giving pardon by the Kurdistan
president Masoud Barzani and would be released that
day. “I was taken to court were 3 judges were
present. It was worse then Saddam’s era or even
Hitler. I was given no time and opportunities to
talk or defend myself or either to my solicitor who
I didn’t know and who had never seen me before. It
was very quick, something around 10 minutes. The
judge read out the charges and the next thing I
realised I was sentenced to 30 years. Something like
this has never happened to anyone except in the most
undemocratic societies”.
“I want to go back to my academic life, this
shouldn’t be the way any civil society deals with
free and independent views and it breaks fundamental
human rights” said Dr Kamal. “I am here because I
have no connection within the authorities, because I
criticised the system, I am vulnerable man from a
poor family and also from a martyr’s family, if I
was from a rich family or had special connection to
the government officials I wouldn’t be here. I am
sorry for what I wrote about Barzani family, I have
written 3 letters to Kak Masoud Barzani asking for
forgiveness, one of them was even published on the
internet, but what I said in my other articles about
Israelis and their presence in Kurdistan is
something everyone in the streets talks about it,
why should I have to pay for it?”
Dr Kamal continued to explain what he said in his
articles about Dr Gasamlo, KDPI (Kurdistan
democratic party of Iran) leader who was gunned down
by the Iranian authorities in Austria, and the
abduction of Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya with the help
of Israel’s Mosad and US’s CIA. “This is something
the entire world is aware of”.
He expressed his concern about some of Kurdish media
and groups using his cause and trying to take
adventures his situation in order to criticise the
Kurdistan regional government and in particular the
KPD, led by Masoued Barzani.
At the end he said if he gained no success from his
appeal and was kept in prison he will end his life
and bring further shame to the Kurdish government.
“I was used as a scapegoat, I still don’t know why I
am here” I am political prisoner says Dr Kamal.
Before I leave him he asks me if I can ask police
officials if he can be allowed use of a telephone
and computer in order to use the internet. Dr Kamal,
an international law expert, has two Phds, and was
in the process of pursuing his 3rd PHD in anthology.
I felt how trapped Dr Kamal is and how unfairly he
has been sentenced. Later on that day I logged into
one of the internet chat rooms where there is
constant campaigning set up for the release of Dr
Kamal, and has been kept alive for over two months.
After telling the chartroom about my meeting,
shockingly I was accused of being a spy for Parasten
(KDP’s intelligence services) by the room
administrator. In one way I understand their
suspicion as others didn’t have such access to him
and this matter has been closely watched by Kurdish
people outside of Kurdistan. The only thing I could
do at that point was to ask the person who holds
petitions to apologise. He said he will apologise
only when I draw myself out this matter and do not
proceed with publishing this news, and also not to
give interviews to radio and press. Realising how
sensitive the issues are I agree with myself to
leave this matter untouched. It is apparent that
some people do use this in order to voice their
anger with the Kurdistan authorities, something that
Dr Kamal himself said to me when I met him. On the
other hand, I feel sorry for him that he has been
heavily punished for something as a means to try to
scare other writers and intellectuals about freedom
of speech.
I have been to Lalash once before. It is our next
stop to this pilgrim’s site for Yazidi Kurds, based
in the heart of the mountains, a beautiful and
natural place it is home to religious sites and
prayer places for the Yezidi community, which
attracts Yezidi Kurds from other parts of Kurdistan
a few times a year. Setting off from the historical
town of Amediye, which was build on top of a
mountain, to meet Shik Tahssin Beg with my historian
accompaniment and the film crew we all know that we
will spend the new year in Lalash temple. Perhaps we
will witness praying to start a new year.
My journey is to continue to Haji Omaran, where as a
joint team with some film makers I will start
shooting a documentary about border smuggling and
the fact that the Iranian authorities are shooting
young people engaged in this work dead on a weekly
basis. Ancient, poor desperate people who are forced
to find their daily living by carrying cigarettes
for as little as 2$.
There was an angry scene and heated debate on most
Turkish and Turkmen television last night about why
Real Madrid agreed to open up training football
school in Hawler. There was a very strong reaction
from the Turkish authorities seeing Kurdistan’s
success and forming its international image in many
angles. It was so funny to see what they showed as a
reputed film clip about Hawler, old men drinking tea
wearing Kurdish clothes and some women wearing very
strict garments, and dirty streets. None of this was
the image of Hawler and the life there that I had
witnessed. Instead, it was carefully edited to focus
only on negative points.
As 2006 begins I wish this year to be a year of
prosperity and success for all parts of Kurdistan
and in particular for this part which is nowadays
considered by Kurds as the future hope for us as
Kurds of other parts of Kurdistan to reach such
international recognition. Although there is a long
way for Kurdistan to reach international standards
comparing with some parts of the world, what I saw
in Kurdistan is a progressive start for a bright
future. The promise of an increasingly democratised
middle east, with prosperous, happy, peaceful
societies co-existing is a dream that can become a
reality if we continue to work with the new
resources we have before us. As this new year
begins, I hope that we all work towards this goal,
and to recognise the important point in history we
find ourselves. I share my hope with you, and look
forward to the challenges and opportunities ahead.
Kameel Ahmady
Kameel14@hotmail.com
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