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'German Kurds' arrive in the real world of
war-torn Iraq
31.10.2007 |
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October
31, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', --
Some 2,500 Kurds have returned to Kurdistan region
'northern Iraq' from Germany in the four years since
the fall of Saddam's regime. However, some of them
might be wondering today whether their decision to
return to Kurdistan autonomous region was right as
the Turks in the north are preparing for a possible
attack against the fighters of the Turkey's banned
Kurdish Worker's Party PKK.
When the Nihad Latif Kodsha, 49, returned to his
homeland in January 2004 after 23 years in German
exile, he was full of drive and optimism. Saddam's
regime no longer existed.
The Kurdistan's region capital, Erbil, whose mayor
he is now, was flying the Kurdish flag with the
yellow sun. Proud and eager, the Kurdish politician
began to work.
Yet, only two months later he had his first setback.
Kodsha, who is a German citizen and considers Bonn
his second home, only just escaped a gun attack. The
grazing shot left a small scar on his forehead.
"All the culprits have been arrested," says the
mayor, who enjoys playing cards in his free time.
Despite the privileges that come with his job, he
doesn't have an easy life. "I'm simply too German,
that's why I have got so much grey hair in the last
three years," he jokes as he runs his hand through
his short hair with the grey streaks.
He doesn't like the idea of dying his hair black,
which is very common among Iraqi men. His Kurdish
identity is important to him.
But that doesn't stop him from occasionally visiting
the German Inn at Erbil, where they serve schnitzel
and goulash soup.
The inn has decorative garden gnomes in its front
garden, and the beer steins are 20 times as big as
an Iraqi tea glass.
Men who want to have their hair cut in Erbil can do
so at the Stuttgart barber's shop, named after a
city in the southern German state of
Baden-Wuertemberg. And when asking: "Do you speak
Arabic or English?" your opposite might ask in
return: "Do you speak German maybe?"
Even the young Kurd with the curly hair, who every
evening collects the money at an Erbil internet
cafe, lights up when he gets the chance to practice
his broken German.
"I have lived in Nuremberg for six years," he says.
"I even still have a residence permit for Germany,
but my passport is gone - I have lost it," he says
with a deep sigh.
"In Iraq there will always be new war," he says as
he glances at his customers. Most of them are young
men like himself.
Many of them look at images of naked women on their
computers or chat with relatives.
Suddenly, a young Kurd startles the internet cafe's
employees. He wants to have his Iraqi passport
scanned to travel to Britain via a neighbouring
country.
The other young men feel sorry for him, but they
still laugh at him. His passport, for which he paid
a man in Kirkuk 700 dollars, wouldn't even get him
across the border into Syria.
"The passport official hasn't even written your name
in English and the fingerprint is missing. You can
forget about that," an Arab from Baghdad says as the
young Kurd with his nostalgia for Nuremberg only
shakes his head in despair.
Since 1991, the Kurds of Iraq achieved self-rule in
part of the country. Today's teenagers are the first
generation to grow up under Kurdish rule. In the new
Iraqi Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan
region.
www.ekurd.net
Kurdistan region has all the trappings of an
independent state -- its own constitution, its own
parliament, its own flag, its own army, its own
border, its own border patrol, its own national
anthem, its own education system, its own
International airports, even its own stamp inked
into the passports of visitors.
DPA | Agencies
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