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Kurdistan: Artists angry with union's
executive board
26.9.2006
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Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan-Iraq, September 26 ,-- Horin suggests the
organization be completely dissolved and reassembled
based on European standards.
A number of artists in Kurdistan have decided to go
on strike against their union. They are expected to
seize the building of their syndicate in Sulaimaniya
as a way of expressing part of their severe
frustration.
At the Azadi (Freedom) Park last Saturday evening,
more than 30 members gathered to discuss next
possible measures to take in order to convey the
message of their discontentedness with their union.
They say they have now been convinced that the
so-called unification of the two unions of Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah has caused nothing but a burden on the
way to their productivity and artistic works.
Horin Gharibi, a director, says there is a certain
group of individuals who are in charge of the union,
taking advantage of organization and using it for
their own self-interests. He says from now on, all
their efforts will be to take the union back from
them.
Although one of the members on strike is Gharibi
himself, he still does not believe that pulling away
from the organization is the key solution to the
problem. He claims that those on strike can make a
bigger difference if they choose to go back to the
union and use other means to prove their point.
"Instead of going on strike, we can be more
effective if we decide to return and put forward the
list of our demands and conditions by which the
executive members of the syndicate must abide," he
says.
The most recent internal conflict within the union
arose following a decision made by the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) for the union to unify with
its Erbil counterpart. This decision also
transferred a number of artists from Sulaimaniyah to
Erbil.
Each one of the two syndicates of the two cities had
around 75 members who - according to Burhan
Qaradaghi - were all people belonging to the two
persons leading the syndicates. "The artists of
Sulaimaniyah's were those of the Union President
Faraydoun Dartash's gang, and the other ones in
Erbil were those of Ahmad Salar's gang members."
Horin suggests the organization be completely
dissolved and reassembled based on European
standards. He says the 'family' of the
administrators and executive members who have been
in control of the union have left no hope for growth
and enhancement. "It has been made clear to everyone
that the people leading the union are not, by any
means, representatives of the artist members," Horin
explains, "they are only hand-puppets of the KDP and
PUK and do as they are told."
Shwan Atoufi, another director, says the Erbil and
Sulaimaniyah union branches have also been deciding
who is an artist and who is not according to an
agenda the two have been following since the time of
their unification.
"What is even more frustrating is knowing that those
who are now making decisions on who to give the
title of 'artist' to are those who have secretly
gone to conferences and making other decisions
without the members' consent."
Further expressing his frustration, Shwan adds that
even the application forms to attend the conferences
were distributed behind closed doors without anyone
knowing anything about them. "The forms were only
given to the ones who related to those running the
union," he says.
Jihad Dilpak, Member of the Executive Committee of
the union, however, denies all such allegations. He
says these people have no evidence proving that we
have used the organization in our own favour. "You
cannot take someone to conferences who continuously
degrades his union and does not feel part of the
organization," Dilpak says. "They do all these
things, and still expect to partake in conferences
and discussions."
Dilpak explains that anything that has been
organized so far has only been for the purpose of
the re-linking of the association, which was heavily
divided by PUK and KDP's previous battles. "We still
have a conference underway through which everyone
will soon be able to nominate themselves for the
board of directors and executives and become
promoted to positions for which they are qualified."
Kurdishglobe net
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