Fort and Bravestone

Anfal Memorial

The following are pictures from the Anfal Memorial taken during my visit on July 5, 2012. The memorial also includes a museum which is not yet complete and a large cemetery in which are/are being buried bodies recovered from mass graves.
 

In Remembrance of Halabja - 2006

I wrote the following for Kurdishaspect.com.

Five years ago this month, protesters burned down the Monument of Halabja Martyrs. As an outsider, I have always found the symbolism of the burning memorial to be the height of poetry and a high point for Kurdish democracy. The message of the burning is simple: the past, present and future of Kurdistan belongs to the Kurdish people.

I was living in Sulemania at the time and I clearly remember being told, “the politicians come every year and make speeches, but they do nothing for Halabja.” After 18 years, some people had had enough. Halabja had become (and still is) a metaphor for the years under Saddam. Post-Saddam, the city and the 1988 tragedy became a symbol of victory seeming to say “Look how far we have come, Kurds. In spite of this tragedy, we have become victorious.”

The problem, of course, is that in 2006 Halabja still very much looked like the city it had been on March 17, 1988, the day after the attack. Halabja still lacked basic services and the people of Halabja felt as though they were being ignored by the Kurdish government in whom they had put their hopes for renewal. The politicians came every year to show their commitment to the people who had suffered so terribly, but the people only heard words without seeing any action.

Halabja had become caught up in the narrative of Kurdish nationalism and Kurdish nationalism is the tool that the Kurdish government uses to keep order.

There are two versions of Kurdish nationalism; one that’s based on institutions and personalities and one that’s based on culture and history. Often the lines between these two are blurred and the average person believes that the government or a politician are the as important to their culture as a song or an event, like Halabja. It happens here in the US, when we confuse party affiliation or devotion to the president with patriotism.

Governments tend to prefer this blurring even to one strictly built around themselves because it allows them to co-opt great events to further their aims. It’s a cynical view, yes, but one which certainly played out in Halabja leading up to 2006. In Halabja, politicians and leaders had co-opted the tragedy and the suffering of the city.

The Halabja tragedy was slowly taken away from the people who had suffered and was turned into a talking point. The anniversary was becoming a day for politicians to make grand speeches because the heart of every Kurd turns to Halabja on that day: people are listening on that day. A politician could say, “I am a good Kurd. I love Halabja. See me making this speech from Halabja – I really came to this poor place and I am among these poor people. I am a good Kurd.”

The shared tragedy became a political rally, no longer shared, but owned by the leadership. The memories of 1988 put in a museum and made the official artifacts for remembrance and a part of the political narrative of Kurdishness.

The only way to truly honor those that died in 1988 was to remove the spectacle of the anniversary and the only way to remove the spectacle was to burn down the memorial. The people took the memory of Halabja away from the politicians and brought it back to the people to whom it had always belonged

The lingering question, however is did it work? It should have worked. The symbolism was so clear. Politicians must have read the writing on the wall. The people must have stood up that day and continued to stand up. Right?

The unfortunate answer, though, is that it didn’t work; nothing changed.

So, who’s to blame?

Surprise, it’s not the government, or at least not the government alone. A government that had done so much in so few years in any other society would be applauded and the KRG are moving forward, albeit slowly. More importantly, the Kurdish government is democratically elected. So, corrupt or otherwise, the current government belongs to the voters.

That means that everyone is to blame and everyone forgot the message of March 16, 2006: the past, present and future of Kurdistan belongs to the Kurdish people.

One day the current protesting will end. It has to. Will the government and the people continue to work for change? That remains to be seen, but change must be made in Kurdistan, not in the burning of things this time, but by igniting the fire in the Kurdish people.

New York Times' Coverage of Osman Killing

The New York Times publised a nice article on the killing of journalist Zerdesht Osman.

Ayman Oghanna for The New York Times

"Now his death is underscoring the limits of free expression and igniting angry debate about what issues could cost journalists their lives. Many question whether true democracy can take hold in this corner of Iraq that has been spared much of the violence and instability that has plagued the rest of the country over the past seven years, allowing it to be considered a haven for business and investments. "

Full text here.

The Jungle of Calais

"At dawn today, riot police moved into The Jungle and rounded up the migrants despite dozens of human rights activists who tried to block their way. They denounce the raid as a media stunt they would drive the migrants underground making them easier pray for traffickers. The Jungle of Calais might be closed, they say, but the steady flow of migrants to Northern France will continue and simply bubble up somewhere else. "

-NPR News

On September 22, French police bulldozed a makeshift village in the port city of Calais that had been set up and inhabited by immigrants. I heard the story on NPR last week and it piqued my interest.

Although I haven't had a chance to confirm it yet, I believe that this is where Aram was living before he was arrested trying to get into the UK.

The AP story is here and you can listen to the full story from NPR here.

Way to Go, Suley

Iraqi Kurd opposition hails poll breakthrough
By Shwan Mohammed (AFP) – 12 hours ago

SULAIMANIYAH, Iraq — A new opposition party in Iraqi Kurdistan said on Sunday that it had made a major breakthrough towards ending the region's long dominance by the two main former rebel factions.

The Goran (Change) list said it won most votes in the autonomous region's second city of Sulaimaniyah in weekend elections, raising the prospect of a strong opposition in parliament for the first time.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani have dominated Iraqi Kurdish politics for half a century, first as rebels and then following the aftermath of the 1991 Gulf war, as the region's effective rulers.

Goran said in a statement on its website that it had won the most votes in the parliamentary election in Sulaimaniyah, long a PUK stronghold, after a preliminary count, a claim confirmed by a senior KDP source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

"We have won the city and the province of Sulaimaniyah," the Goran statement said.
Preliminary results from the simultaneous presidential election suggested that the joint KDP-PUK candidate Barzani was also trailing in the province to London-based university professor Kamal Miraudly, who had been considered a rank outsider.

But the incumbent regional president was ahead in Kurdistan's other two provinces of Arbil and Dohuk, both traditional strongholds of his KDP.

The KDP source said that across the region, the joint KDP-PUK "Kurdistania" list won 59 percent of the vote, equating to around 55 seats in the region's 111-seat parliament.
The joint list held 78 seats in the outgoing parliament elected in 2005.

A senior Goran official told AFP that the party would win 28 seats -- 19 in Sulaimaniyah and nine in Arbil -- making it the first credible opposition to KDP-PUK dominance that the region has seen.

Another leftist-Islamist list could win as many as 17 seats.

Final results are not expected for several days. After the preliminary count in the regional capital Arbil, ballots are to be sent to Baghdad for an official tally.

Goran is led by Nusherwan Mustafa, a wealthy entrepreneur and former deputy leader of the PUK.

"The Kurdistania list has won enough seats to form a strong government, and Goran has a sufficient number of seats to be a strong opposition," said Hoger Shatu, the director of a non-governmental group monitoring the election.

Nearly 80 percent of the region's voters turned out in what election officials trumpeted as a transparent poll.

No opinion polls were carried out in the run-up to Saturday's election, which had made the outcome difficult to predict.

Kurds exhibited increasing concern over corruption through the course of the campaign, while disputes with Baghdad over territory and oil also loomed over the election.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki described the election as "another step in building a democratic Iraq" and and "an opportunity to resolve all problems".

Barzani told reporters on Saturday: "We hope that these elections will be a first step to solving issues with Baghdad."

But he also insisted: "I will work to get back the disputed areas."

He was referring to longstanding Kurdish demands to incorporate the oil province of Kirkuk and historically Kurdish-majority parts of three other provinces into their autonomous region.

Those claims are strongly opposed by Arab and other non-Kurdish populations of the disputed areas and have led to mounting friction with Baghdad.

Voting Today

Kurdish elections today.

Here's the BBC's take.

Voting is under way for a new president and parliament in the autonomous
Iraqi region of Kurdistan, with the governing coalition facing a vigorous
challenge.

A BBC correspondent says turnout is expected to be high, with queues of
people outside polling stations before they had opened.

Incumbent President Masood Barzani and the ruling parliamentary coalition
are both expected to win re-election.

Kurdish Elections 2009

Al Jazeera has a nice piece on the upcoming Kurdish elections in Iraq.

Read it here.

"The use of 'closed lists' in this election has also been condemned by
observers and voters alike.

In 'closed lists', voters can only vote for political parties as a
whole and have no say on which party candidate is elected.

By concealing the identities of those who make up the new reform
parties, critics claim it is a plot to guide voters toward supporting the
well-known parties rather than popular individuals.

Members of the establishment have justified this method, claiming that
the people do not have the knowledge and experience to identify individuals who
are well suited to take part in decision-making.

The challenge for the people of Kurdistan in these elections is to find
the right balance of candidates that will empower parties to best serve Iraqi
Kurdistan."

update: Second article here.

But Dr Fereydun Rafiq Hilmi, a member of the first Kurdish cabinet in 1992,
suggested that the election is unlikely to undermine the ruling alliance
between the two parties.

"I don't think there is going to be any challenge to the PUK and KDP,
because these guys are there to stay. They have no intention of letting anyone
else rule," he told Al Jazeera.

Hilmi said the parties have "a long list of malpractice as far as
elections are concerned", citing the first Kurdish elections in 1992 in which he
says the results were "discarded".

"They decided to have a 50-50 system and they established a government,
of which I was a member. It was quite ineffective," he said.

"The people are fed up with the old way of doing things. They have been
fed up for the past 18 to 19 years."

The Kurdish Elections

With elections in Kurdistan on the horizon, I think this is an interesting note.

This article is from 2008, but still relevant.

"Iraq has changed, but Iraqi Kurdistan has not. After Saddam's fall, many
Iraqi Kurds expected that their region would liberalize and democratize. Rather
than reform, however, regional politics have ossified. Barzani retains
dictatorial control over the Duhok and Erbil governorates, and Talabani likewise
dominates Sulaymaniyah. While it is inaccurate to describe the Kurdish
leadership—at least the PUK half—as tribal, both parties rely on family members
for control. Barzani appointed his nephew prime minister and assigned his
thirty-five-year-old son to run the local intelligence service. Other relatives
control the regional telephone company, newspapers, and media.

Talabani's wife, Hero Khan, likewise, runs the local satellite station.
One son manages the PUK's intelligence operation, while the other represents the
KRG in Washington. When it came time to divvy up ministerial portfolios in
Baghdad, both Kurdish leaders turned to their families: Barzani gave his uncle
the Foreign Ministry portfolio, while Talabani gave one brother-in-law the
Ministry of Water Resources and his wife's brother-in-law the ambassadorship to
China. To Talabani's credit, both men are professionally qualified."

Green Brief #5

"8. The Writers’ Association of Kordistan, the Human Rights Campaign of
Kordistan and some other prominent people have also called for a strike in
Kordistan province on Tuesday. "

For 06/21/09

2 Great New Sites

Angie and I have started a new blog.

I know, you're thinking something like "Why in the world would those two start another blog? Don't they have 15 already? I mean don't they have better things to do?"

Well, it was Angie's idea, it's only 12 or so, and no, no we don't.

Angie came up with the idea for Seven Simple Things about a week ago. I thought it was a pretty good idea; seven simple things, one each day. Click the link and have a look around.

Let us know what you think.

Kurdish lessons have their own site.

If you're a long-time reader, you know I've done some Kurdish lessons. They're pretty popular as far as Kurdish lessons go.

I don't have much competition on the internet, really.

The lessons are migrating over time. Check out the new site, I really like it.

The Kurdish Airforce

Remembering Halabja

The following article was originally posted here in August, 2008. Because March 16 is the anniversary of the attack on Halabja, I decided to post it again. It's an important event to remember as we reconsider Iraq.

On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi government attacked the kurdish city of Halabja with chemical weapons killing 5,000 people and injuring 10,000 others. As of today, it's the worst chemical attack on a civilian population in history.

This image of a man shielding a young child has become an icon in Kurdistan.

Background:

The grinding Iran-Iraq war was coming to a close in 1988 and the border city of Halabja was caught in the middle. Claiming that the Irani army was in the city, the Iraqi air force attacked.

The air force began bombing the city with conventional weapons driving the people of Halabja into their cellars. The gas used in the chemical weapons were heavier than the air, so the cellars where perhaps the worst places to hide. This is one reason why the death toll was so high.

This attack on the Kurds can be considered as part of Iraq's Anfal campaign. Anfal was the systematic genocide of the Kurdish population of northern Iraq. From 1986 to 1999 up to 200,000 Kurds were murdered by the Ba'ath regime. 4,000 villages were destroyed and 250 towns and villages were exposed to chemical weapons (see wikipedia article).

Recommended Reading:

Obviously what I've written is only a brief summary. The US Department of State published an article on their website which I highly recommend.

The Lessons of Halabja

In truth, it was probably written as propaganda during the build up to the invasion. However, that doesn't make it any less true.

Today:

Now that Saddam is gone and the Kurdish region of Iraq has autonomy, the Kurds of Halabja are still dealing with the aftermath of the gas attack. The city was made virually unlivable following the attack, but many of the survivors stayed.

In 2003, the Kurdish government erected a memorial for the attack and in 2006 an angry mob burned it down.

This to me is one of the most interesting parts of the story. 18 years after the attack the city of Halabja still had yet to receive any significant government assistance - and since 1991, that means Kurdish government assistance. On the anniversary of the attack each year, Kurdish politicians would make the trip to Halabja and make promises to the people and use the events of 1988 as a rallying cry for unity behind the government in power.

In 2006, fed up with empty promises, the people of Halabja staged a protest on the anniversary and torched the monument reclaiming their tragedy from the hands of their ineffective leaders.

Ok, that's all I have. Be sure to read the article I referenced above.

Shop Here!

Introducing the 13Months Store!

I added a link to the header, too.

Right now I'm selling Glade products and items related to Kurdistan. I plan to expand my offerings, but it's 1:25 am and I am WAY past my bedtime.

Thoughts on the Election

I have many thoughts on the election, but I find that I'm having a hard time putting together a cohesive post. Therefore, I'll just write some of my thoughts below without worrying about cohesion.

You're on your own for the cohesion.

I watched Al Jazeera for the results. I don't have cable, just what I can get with an antenna. The three major networks had so much extra flare on their screens that it was difficult for me to read anything. So, I watched Al Jazeera online.

They did a nice job, but I heard the phrase "No Republican has every won the presidency without Ohio" about 54 times over three hours.

Also, they had a male and female anchor. The man was British and really awful. When they cut to video of the Obama rally he said "Let's all be silent and let the crowd speak." Cut to five minutes of people screaming while the newspeople remained silent.

It was weird and inappropriate as he cut off a conversation mid-sentence.

McCain's concession speech was nice. I thought it was very classy.

Joe Biden was the only candidate to support federalism in Iraq. I don't know that it'll make any real difference, but it could be positive for Kurdistan.

I always enjoy voting. Yesterday was no exception. It was cool, too that so many people voted who wouldn't normally. It was the first vote for both Angie and Kate. This is the first time Kate was old enough. Angie doesn't really have an excuse.

But, I also found respect for people that refused to vote.

Obama isn't really an African American. He's the son of a white woman and an African man, so he's clearly an American of African descent. However, given his upbringing with his mother's family, I think he lacks the experience of most black Americans.

It also means that his personal racial history is not typical of black people in America. There is no history of slavery or oppressive racism in his family other than his own, of course.

I don't mean that as a value judgment, rather it's just something that occurred to me last night and I found the thought interesting. I wonder about the differences between him and even his own wife. And I wonder if it even matters. Does it play out in the relationship between Obama and Michelle? Does the mere fact of having black skin allow one into the shared history of the black community.

I'd like to do a sociological study of it, but, alas, I doubt I will.

I hope Obama can live up to the expectations of his supporters. Wouldn't that be great? I fear that expectations are way too high, but if he gets anywhere near it'll be great for the country, so I'll wait hopefully.

It's exciting that people are so excited by him, but I can be cynical; I think there's no way he can be everything that people want him to be or even everything he promised to be.

I am eager, though, to get to the end of the Bush administration and the general feeling of funk that's settled in over the past couple of years. For good or bad, Obama will be a change and will be perceived as a huge change.

And Obama's honeymoon phase will keep the media quiet for a while. I think even the conservative media will give him a break for a few months.

That silence will be nice.

Or maybe that's just wishful thinking.

Kurdish Lesson 09 - Food

Kurdish food can vary by region and even by family, so what I present below is a snapshot of the foods I enjoyed first in San Diego and later in Iraq. The families with whom we lived in California were from the Sulemania and Halabja areas which is also where I lived in Iraq. I don’t know much about Hewleri or Dohuki food let alone Kurdish food in Turkey or Iran.

Kurdish food is a blend of regional dishes with local ingredients. The dishes are often similar to what one might find in a Turkish, Lebanese or even Indian restaurant, but in Kurdistan, the dishes have their own unique flavors.

I, for one, have never had falafel better than the falafel I had in Sulemania. The same goes for Briyani.

Below, I will spell the names of the dishes and foods with latini. Remember to click here for a refresher on pronunciation.

Breakfast: A typical Kurdish breakfast is fairly light.

Kurdish	English
Mast	Yoghurt
Hangwîn	Honey
Nan	Bread
Moz	Bananas
Ḧelke Ron	Fried Egg
Ça	Tea
Penîr	Cheese

An everyday breakfast would just be nan u mast, but the others mix in as well. Of course, no breakfast is complete without Ça.

My favorite breakfast was to mix my mast with date syrup. It was great, but I have no idea what the Kurdish word for date syrup is. Sorry.

Lunch and Dinner: Lunch and dinner foods are usually the same. We often ate lunch at the office where we had a cook. She made some really great things! (Although, some of my co-workers complained about the excessive amounts of oil!)

Kurdish	English
Birinc	Rice
Zalate	Salad
Fasulîe	Beans
Kube	Ground meat wrapped in rice
Brîanî	Spiced rice with anything and everything in it
Kufte	Ground meat wrapped in wheat served in a tomato soup
Tepsî	Eggplant, zucchini, onions and potato fried with spices
Yapraẍ/ Dolme	Ground meat wrapped in grape leaves or stuffed in various vegetables
Şile	Tomato-based stew with one of many vegetables
Şufte	Little spiced-meat patties (My personal favorite!)

Miscellaneous Food Names: There are many other words you’ll need to cook and eat in Kurdistan. I have tried to include those below. I have also included separate tables for fruits and vegetables.

Kurdish	English
Goşt	Meat
Qȋme	Ground meat
Mirişik	Chicken
Qal	Turkey
Masȋ	Fish
Samun	Bread loaves or buns
Ron	Oil
Şekir	Sugar
Ard	Flour
Mast Aw	Yogurt and water drink
Do	Like Mast Aw, but when made traditionally, it’s semi-fermented in an animal stomach
Gȋpe	Meat cooked in a cow's stomach
Sȇr u Pȇ	Head and feet. Sheep’s brains and feet
Kabab	Meat patty on a skewer
Tike	Meat chunks on a skewer
Gwȇs	Nuts
Xwȇ	Salt

Fruits and Vegetables: The secret to Kurdish culture is this: when you are invited to dinner or visit someone, they will eventually serve you fruit. The fruit is your sign that it’s time to go.

Kurdish	English
Sȇw	Apple
Pirtikal	Orange
Hunir	Pomegranate
Tirȇ	Grape
Moz	Banana
Kişmiş	Raisin
Qeȋsȋ	Apricot

I don’t like vegetables all that much, so my vocabulary is slim. Sorry.

Kurdish	English
Pȋaz	Onion
Tomate	Tomato
Potate	Potato
Baȋinjan	Eggplant
Zȇtun	Olives
Bamȇ	Okra

This certainly isn’t an exhaustive list, but it’s a good start.

If you have recipes for any of these foods, please post them in the comments. I can only make rice and şile.

A view of our neighborhood store. The lady on the right makes the world's best Kube and Şufte.

A small store like this is called a dukan.

Kurdish Lesson 08 - Full Sorani Pronunciation

I debated for a while whether or not to go too much into Kurdish pronunciation and especially into latini. I've discussed here on the blog the reasons for it, but I'll recap:

Latini isn't widely used
Where Latini is used, it's not always consistent
The Kurdish alphabet it better
I think you'll find it boring

Well, I've decided that it's not a big deal if you think it's boring, you don't have to read it and the other reasons aren't good enough not to do it.

Plus, it'll make any other language discussions/lessons easier because I'll have this page as a reference.

Below you'll find the Latini alphabet as it applies to Sorani. I have tried to keep the explanations simple, but a few of the letters will require more explanation. Those letters are shown in red and discussed further below the list. Also, all of my references are for American English, so keep that in mind.

a.. always "ah" as the o in Bob

b.. just like the b in english

c.. in Latini this represents the the j in judge. Always j, never c

ç.. this special character is for the ch sound like in chair

d.. like the d in dog

e.. always "uh" as the u in bub

ȇ.. long a like the a in baby

f.. like the f in fire

g.. like the g in gravy

h.. like the h in heavy

ḧ.. *see below

i.. short i sound like the i in big

ȋ.. long e sound like the y in baby

j.. this is not like the j in judge it's like the s in fusion (or the zh in zhane for anyone who remembers them)

k.. this is like the k in kite

l.. like the l in lamp

ll.. *see below

m.. m in man

n.. n in man

o.. full o like the os in oboe

p.. p in panic

q.. *see below

r.. not the American r! *see below

rr.. rolled or trilled r as in Spanish

s.. s like sassy

ş.. sh. like shabby

t.. t like tea

u.. *see below

û.. *see below

v.. v is for victory

w.. w as in water

x.. *see below

ẍ.. *see below

y.. y as in you

z.. z in zebra

'.. *see below

There are some sounds which you won't find in Kurdish. The short a in apple or the th of this and think for example.

ḧ.. Click here to hear it. This is an h sound made well back in the throat. It's a sound borrowed from Arabic.
ll.. Click here to hear it. This is like the ll sound in well versus the l in like.

q.. Click here to hear it. This is a swallowed k. Make the k sound with the back of your tongue. It's the last sound in the word Iraq. This is another sound borrowed from Arabic.

r.. Click here to hear it.

u.. Click here to hear it.

û.. Click here to hear it.

x.. Click here to hear it. This is like the ch in Bach. We don't have it in English, but you'll recognize the sound.

ẍ.. Click here to hear it. This is the letter that we replace with gh in Baghdad. This one's also borrowed from Arabic.

'.. Click here to hear it. This one's also borrowed from Arabic.

One last note, there is no letter for the i (eye) sound like the i in, well, like. But it's a relatively common sound in Sorani. It's made with a vowel combo of either eȋ or aȋ.

So that's all of the sounds. I made a special note of the Arabic sounds because, once you recognize the sounds, you'll easily be able to pick out the Arabic loan words. These are the words which are being replaced with Kurdish words. If your language helper teaches you one of these words, it's a good idea to ask for the Kurdish word - just so you'll know it.

A great way to practice the sounds is to write with Latini, but in your language.

ȇ grȇt wȇ tu praktis saunds iz tu raȋt Latȋnȋ, bet in yur on languac.

Kurdish Lesson 07 - Kirkuk

I traveled to Kirkuk once in 2006. Long-time readers may remember my tale from that trip and, most certainly, this picture which caused such a stir at home.


When the A-Team (see above) decided to visit the American family in Kirkuk, we we picked up by the family's drivers, taken to a point just outside of Kirkuk, transferred to two bullet-proof vehicles and taken into the city.

I was in a separate car from the ladies. They were given bullet-proof vests, but I wasn't. I was advised not to get too close to the window and not to draw attention to myself.

I don't know anything about the layout of Kirkuk. I don't know what neighborhood the family lived in and I don't know what roads we took once we were inside Kirkuk. I peeked out the window from the safety of my seat rather than pressing my face up against the glass as I would have prefered.

The city looked just like the other cities I'd been to in Kurdistan, but it seemed sadder and poorer. I remember dirty banners hung across the road which reminded me of some long abandoned party.

At one point, our host pointed out his window, "That's where they say the prophet Daniel is buried."

I couldn't see much from my side of the car, but I wondered how dangerous it would actually be to stop and see it. I mean, it's Daniel of lion den fame. If he could make it out of the lion's den safely, why couldn't I make it out of Kirkuk safely?

We spent our weekend inside the family's home and we left the same way we came. Except, on the way out, I wore a bullet-proof vest, too.

Kirkuk is important today, not as the burial place of Daniel, but as the newest stumbling block for the Iraqi constitution.

The historically Kurdish city was not included in the no-fly zone following the first Gulf War. In fact, the Iraqi government removed their recognition of both Kirkuk and it's oil fields as part of the Kurdish region in 1974. This came following promises in 1970 to honor historical precedent.

Throughout the 1980s the Ba'ath regime of Saddam Hussein pursued a policy of arabization in much of Kurdistan, but certainly in Kirkuk. The government moved Arabs in and forced Kurds out. The city and surrounding province remained predominantly Kurdish, nonetheless.

Following the US invasion and the fall of the Ba'ath regime, Kurds who had been resettled began to return to Kirkuk. Since that time, Kirkuk has been a hotbed of in-fighting and insurgency.

The fighting is between three main Iraqi parties; Sunni, Shia and Kurd, plus a relatively small population of Turkmen. Each side wants control of the city and its vast oil reserves. At the very least, no one wants one of the other groups to gain control.

In the Kurds favor is Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution. It allows for a referendum on the status of Kirkuk. The article allows for the iof Kirkuk to decide their own future; to become part of the Kurdish region or not. There is little doubt that the majority Kurdish population will choose inclusion with the rest of the Kurdish region.

This vote was to take place in November 2007. As of August 2008, that has yet to happen.

The problem is that each ethnic group, with the exception of the Kurds, has strong regional backing. The Shia have the support of Iran, The Sunni of Saudi Arabia and the Turkomen of Turky. Each nation has pressed the Iraqi government to postpone the vote in the hopes of weakening the Kurdish region.

Although, in the case of Saudi Arabia it may have much more to do with keeping it for the Sunnis rather than weakening the Kurds. The Saudis would much prefer a strong Sunni Iraq to a strong Shia state in its place.

Up to this point, the Kurdish government has supported the Iraqi constitution. In the past month, the Kurdish bloc has walked out of parliament sessions over election laws related to the Kirkuk question. The Kurdish region is beyond a doubt the strongest and most stable region of Iraq. If the Iraqi government loses the support of the Kurds, the government collapses.

The question becomes, how long will the Kurds wait on Kirkuk? The peshmerga could take control of the city and region and hold it . This is one of the reasons that both Turkey and Iran continue to shell Northern Iraq. Claims of PKK or PJAK support is a pretext to keep armed forces on the border and, should the Kurds claim what it rightfully theirs, one can be sure that Turkey and Iran will use the same pretext to attack.

Like Halabja, there is much more to this story than I can provide. Below are some good websites to check out if you want to know more.

Kirkuk on Wikipedia
Kirkuk on GlobalSecurity
Council on Foreign Relations

Kurdish Lesson 06 - Halabja

Lesson 05 was a written about 6 weeks ago and, at the end of it, I promised that the next lesson would cover Halabja.

Today, Kirkuk is arguably the most important Kurdish city to which we should be paying attention. In fact, just this week the Kurdish members of the Iraqi parliament walked out over it. Kirkuk will probably be lesson 07.

Kirkuk's prominence in Kurdish news today is directly tied to the events which led up to the tragedy of Halabja; Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Kurds.

Basics:

On March 16, 1988, the Iraqi government attacked the kurdish city of Halabja with chemical weapons killing 5,000 people and injuring 10,000 others. As of today, it's the worst chemical attack on a civilian population in history.

This image of a man shielding a young child has become an icon in Kurdistan.

Background:

The grinding Iran-Iraq war was coming to a close in 1988 and the border city of Halabja was caught in the middle. Claiming that the Irani army was in the city, the Iraqi air force attacked.

The air force began bombing the city with conventional weapons driving the people of Halabja into their cellars. The gas used in the chemical weapons were heavier than the air, so the cellars where perhaps the worst places to hide. This is one reason why the death toll was so high.

This attack on the Kurds can be considered as part of Iraq's Anfal campaign. Anfal was the systematic genocide of the Kurdish population of northern Iraq. From 1986 to 1999 up to 200,000 Kurds were murdered by the Ba'ath regime. 4,000 villages were destroyed and 250 towns and villages were exposed to chemical weapons (see wikipedia article).

Recommended Reading:

Obviously what I've written is only a brief summary. The US Department of State published an article on their website which I highly recommend.

The Lessons of Halabja

In truth, it was probably written as propaganda during the build up to the invasion. However, that doesn't make it any less true.

Today:

Now that Saddam is gone and the Kurdish region of Iraq has autonomy, the Kurds of Halabja are still dealing with the aftermath of the gas attack. The city was made virually unlivable following the attack, but many of the survivors stayed.

In 2003, the Kurdish government erected a memorial for the attack and in 2006 an angry mob burned it down.

This to me is one of the most interesting parts of the story. 18 years after the attack the city of Halabja still had yet to receive any significant government assistance - and since 1991, that means Kurdish government assistance. On the anniversary of the attack each year, Kurdish politicians would make the trip to Halabja and make promises to the people and use the events of 1988 as a rallying cry for unity behind the government in power.

In 2006, fed up with empty promises, the people of Halabja staged a protest on the anniversary and torched the monument reclaiming their tragedy from the hands of their ineffective leaders.

Ok, that's all I have. Be sure to read the article I referenced above.

Iraq War Over?

Two long-term and respected journalists covering Iraq seem to think it is.

Read Michael Totten's article here. It references another article by Michael Yon which you can read here.

Read and discuss.

Kurdish Lesson 05 - Notes on Pronunciation

This post is for Mo.

First, I should apologize for deleting your comment on this. It was just too long. Sorry.

But let that be a lesson for the rest of you!

Just kidding...

Ok. Her comment was a plea for clarification on the pronunciation of the Kurdish words I've listed here with these Kurdish lessons. This is one of the reasons I was somewhat hesitant to try to teach anything to do with language.

As you may know, Kurdish is not written with a latinate alphabet. They use an Arabic script. It should be noted, however, that it is not the same script used to write Arabic; there are many differences between the two. In Kurdish each letter makes one consistent sound.

English is not written with an Arabic alphabet. We use the Latin alphabet, or at least we use parts of it.

I am sure you've noticed, though, that the English alphabet is not consistent when it comes to sound. Most of the consonants are fairly consistent, but the vowels are all over the place.

Kurdish can be written with the latin alphabet.

There is an alphabet called Latini which is used uncommonly for written Sorani Kurdish. In Latini each Kurdish letter equals one latin letter; each letter equals one and only one sound. There are letters in this alphabet that don't appear in English. For instance the ' represents a sound. There are also different letters for the short and long "a" sounds as another example.

That presents me with two problems. 1) I can't use the Latini alphabet because some of the letters don't appear on my keyboard and 2) I would have to teach a new alphabet to everyone and I don't think anyone wants that.

You can see more on the alphabets here. Pay special attention to Latin 1 (that's closest to English) and Latin 2 (that's the Latini used in Kurdistan).

Kurdish script in action! Plus Angie in fancy sunglasses!

Having said all of that, I will try to help with the words I've already listed:

I, me = min (like the English word men)
you = to (pronounced like toe)
he/him/she/her/it = ew (Similar to the ou in ouch, but short)
we, us = ayme (long a + the mu in mug)
you plural = aywe (long a + what - t)
they, them = ewan (uh like you're thinking + Juan)

hello/ how are you: chony? bashy? (chony means how are you, but is used as hello. bashy literally means "are you good?" The two are usually used together.) (chony rhymes with phony and bashy sounds like gnosh + long e)

I'm good. Thanks: Bashim. Supas (pronounced closer to spas) (the a is pronounced like ah)

And how are you: To chony?

Good bye: Xwa hafis (The sound of X does not appear in English. It's like the German "ch" in Bach. Hafis is like ha+fee+ the s sound in hiss)

See you later: Dwai etbeenimewe (dw+ the word eye, then et + bean + um + uh + wuh)

Halabja (all the a's are like "ah" and everything else sounds like you expect.)

I hope that helps!