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While Kurdish leaders
gain power in Baghdad, many Kurds continue to demand
independence.
Every morning when the school day begins in northern
Iraq, students sing an anthem and raise green, red
and white flags with bright suns in the centre. Both
represent Kurdish heritage, and neither have any
connection to Iraq.
"No one should say the Kurds are dead," students
chant. "Kurds are alive. They are alive, and our
flag will never fall."
It has been nearly 100 years since British and
French colonial forces carved up the Middle East and
split the Kurdish territories among several
countries. Despite the fact that Iraqi Kurds
struggled for decades and still do not have their
own country, nationalism - and a sense of Kurdish
pride - is stronger than ever in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The ministry of education has ordered schools to
stop raising Kurdish flags and singing the anthem,
but headmasters don't abide by the directives, and
the government doesn't push the issue.
"The ritual of raising Kurdistan's flag is a way to
expressing our love and respect to our nation and
our own flag," said Ibrahim Maruf, a primary school
headmaster in Sulaimaniyah.
As post-Baathist Iraq is formed, Kurds who were
oppressed by the regime are fighting for as much
autonomy as they can get from Baghdad. And Baghdad
does not push Kurdish authorities on such
technicalities as naming border points with Turkey
"Iraqi Kurdistan" as long as the Kurds don't push
for an independent nation.
But for many Kurds, that is the ultimate goal. Years
of oppression by Saddam Hussein's regime have led to
a perpetual mistrust of Arabs.
The younger generation, which grew up under a
semi-autonomous Kurdish government following a
successful rebellion against Saddam in 1991, has
even less connection to the Iraqi state than older
Kurdish Iraqis. Many comprehend but do not speak
Arabic and have never travelled to Arab areas in
Iraq.
The only way to fully liberate Kurdistan is by
declaring independence, said Gizing Ahmed, a
24-year-old teacher.
"The current agendas of the Iraqi Arab political
powers are not much different than the ideology of
the Baath Party," he argued.
The leading Kurdish political parties, the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party,
have endorsed a unified Iraq by working as key
players in drafting the national constitution, which
voters approved in October. The constitution was
controversial, particularly among young Kurds,
because it does not allow for Kurdish
self-determination.
An unofficial vote held by an organisation called
the Referendum Movement during the January 2005
parliamentary elections also found 98 per cent of
those who cast ballots wanted an independent Kurdish
state.
"It has become clear to the all parties what the
Kurdish people want," said Fatah Zakhoyee, a former
culture minister with the Kurdistan regional
government's Sulaimaniyah administration and an
advocate of an independent Kurdistan.
Strong nationalist sentiments remain even though
Kurds are seen less as victims and more as key
political players in Baghdad. Jalal Talabani, a
popular Kurdish leader and head of the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan, is widely expected to be
appointed to a second term as president of Iraq. But
public confidence in Baghdad and local
administrations is weak.
"People want to express their desire for an
independent and separate Kurdistan," said Dyar
Ibrahim, who has a stationary shop in Sulaimaniyah
and reported that demand for Kurdish flags and maps
are on the rise, particularly among young people.
"They dream of this by raising the maps and flags of
Kurdistan."
"People have little hope in political change," he
maintained, "and they want to be independent from
Iraq."
Frman Abdulrahman is an IWPR trainee journalist
in Sulaimaniyah.
www.iwpr.net
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