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If you have an interest in the Middle
East, Kurdistan is a great place to visit
17.2.2008
By STEVE STEPHENS
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February 17, 2008
Iraqi Kurdistan isn't a place that's drawing a lot
of visitors these days.
But someday, maybe sooner than many people might
expect, the semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq
could be a promising tourist destination.
"If you have an interest in the Middle East, it's a
great place to visit," said Ken Dillman of Columbus,
who recently returned from a working visit to
Kurdistan.
"For the adventurer, they have a great history
there. It's a very culturally rich area with some
very, very scenic places as well."
The group of visitors was awed by the citadel of
Erbil (Hewler), which was founded about 2,300 B.C.
and is one of the oldest continuously occupied
cities in the world, Dillman said. Erbil is the
capital of Kurdistan.
And gazing up at the beautiful, rugged mountains
above the town of Duhok, visitors can easily forget
about the scars the region carries, he said.
But those who do get the chance to visit shouldn't
go in summer, when temperatures often reach 120
degrees, he said.
Dillman, the pastor at Ekklesia, a nondenominational
church on Buttles Avenue, toured the region in
November (when temperatures were in the 70s and the
weather was good) with a small group of Columbus and
California pastors to learn more about the region
and to help a small, indigenous Christian ministry
there.
Although the Kurds, who are mostly Muslim, frown on
proselytizing, Christians seem to be welcome,
Dillman said.
And compared with the rest of Iraq, Kurdistan is
calm, Dillman said.
"In fact there is a huge economic boom in Kurdistan
now," he said. "There's probably more new housing,
businesses and malls being built there now than in
the Columbus area. That's a side of Iraq that we
don't usually get to see. All we hear about is what
is going on in Baghdad."
The Kurds that Dillman met -- both officials and
ordinary people -- seemed to be pro-Western and
eager to attract visitors and investors from Europe
and the United States, he said.
"The Kurdish people are very open, very friendly.
Kurdistan is heavily Islam, but it's more of a
secular Islam. The women even dress in a very
Western style. You don't see any burqas in
Kurdistan.
"The Kurds are very peaceful people," he said. "They
don't seem to have the tribal angst that you find in
other regions of the Middle East."
Iraq's Kurdish population was brutally repressed
under Saddam Hussein, Dillman noted. So most Kurds,
understandably, don't even want to be identified
with Iraq, he said.
That could spell sectarian trouble down the road, of
course. Troubling, too, are the problems that Kurds
potentially have with Turkey,www.ekurd.net
which is fighting
Kurdish rebels of its own. Turkey has claimed that
some of the rebels are based in Iraqi Kurdistan.
"A month or so after we left was when Turkey started
shelling across the border in the region we were
actually in," Dillman said.
But Dillman, who might return to Kurdistan this
year, holds out hope that the region will be spared
another wave of great suffering.
"We heard some amazing stories meeting with people
who were able to survive the atrocities" under
Saddam, he said. "But one of the beautiful things
about the Kurds is that they didn't seek out
revenge. They're saying, 'Let us live in peace and
govern ourselves.' It was very encouraging."
Steve Stephens is the Dispatch travel writer. He can
be reached at 614-461-5201 or by e-mail.
dispatch com
* 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. Most
Kurds don’t speak Arabic, especially the younger
generation, the 2nd language in Kurdistan after
Kurdish is English language. In the new Iraqi
Constitution, it is referred to as Kurdistan region.
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 patrol, its own national anthem, its own
education system, its own International airports,
even its own stamp inked into the passports of
visitors.
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