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The "Other Iraq" is still Iraq, and the
barbarians are still waiting at the gates
13.6.2007
By Andrew Lee Butters-Erbil
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Dead
Quiet in Kurdistan
June
13, 2007
Erbil, Kurdistan region (Iraq), -- Much as I
respect the need for intellectual property laws, I'm
not sure I could handle reporting in Kurdistan were
it not for $2 pirated DVD's imported from Malaysia.
There isn't much else to do here in Erbil at night,
especially when all my Kurdish friends are married.
It's hot, and dusty and I've been waiting for the
past few days for the green-light from the PKK --
the Kurdish militants at war with Turkey -- to go
visit them at their camps up in the mountains here
in Iraqi Kurdistan. So my options are either
drinking alone or Spider Man 3 shot in shaky-cam.
But the enervating boredom can be misleading.
There's a lot on slow boil here in Kurdistan, as
elsewhere in the region.
Just going out to a Turkish restaurant for lunch
yesterday afforded little glimpses of the larger
disorder. At the table next to mine, three Kurdish
businessmen openly discussed committing fraud with
an Arab official from Kirkuk, who, over the course
of the meal, successfully negotiated a fee hike from
$10,000 to $15,000 for his services in robbing their
country.
"Now you're working for us," said one Kurd, with the
inevitable backslap.
Meanwhile, my waiter -- a twenty-something with a
chiseled frame he didn't get from serving donner
kebab -- whispered to me that he's a Turkish Kurd
fighter with the PKK. "We not afraid to die, like
you Americans," he said as he waved at the flies
gathering on my salad. "As soon as they need me,
I'll be back in the mountains."
And when my driver and I stopped off at a car wash
on the way back at the hotel, several of the
towel-boys were Arab refugees from Baghdad, with the
usual horror stories about executed family members.
Moreover, the summer doldrums that have settled over
Erbil are themselves disquieting. When I was here in
March, the whole city had a gold rush feel that had
boosters talking about Iraqi Kurdistan becoming the
next Dubai and which made finding a hotel room and a
parking place difficult. But it's clear that
business is down everywhere -- scarred off by the
recent bombings and the border conflict with Turkey.
Kurdish officials are doing their best to downplay
the tensions, "What can Turkey do?" But Kurdistan is
surrounded by so much conflict, that it can't afford
any more. The "Other Iraq" is still Iraq, and the
barbarians are still waiting at the gates.
time-blog.com
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