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Reports From Iraq > Mon., Mar. 1, 2004
Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan
ARBIL, IRAQ -- "Welcome to Iraqi Kurdistan" says
the sign at the Iraq's Northern border crossing in Zakho.
The Kurdish flag flies nearby. There's a life-sized portrait
of Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Massoud Barzani where
Saddam Hussein's portrait used to be. Kalashnikov-toting peshmerga
guerilla fighters maintain regular check-points on the main
roads. There isn't an American soldier in sight.
The Kurds are often called the largest people in the world
without a country. About 40 million Kurds are spread across
Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. Historically, Kurds have been
oppressed in each of these countries. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein
killed at least 100,000 Kurds during his brutal Anfal campaign.
In Turkey, the leading Kurdish figure, Abdulla Ocalan, languishes
isolated in his own prison on his own island in the Marmara
Sea. In Syria, Kurds are required to serve in the military
but denied the basic rights of citizenship.
But in today's Iraq the situation is different. In Northern
Iraq, where Kurds are the majority a de-facto Kurdistan has
been created. Kurdish is the only language spoken on the streets
and the signs on the government buildings proclaim "Kurdistan
Health Ministry" and "Kurdistan Ministry of Education."
Kurdistan even has its own secret police.
Now Kurdish leaders hope they can make Kurdistan a permanent
feature of Iraq. Shukr Piro Sinjo, head of the Iraqi Kurdistan
NGO Network, says that's why Iraqi Kurds supported the war.
"It was decided to work with the U.S. for that purpose,"
he says. "The Kurds were a strong player in the game.
They sacrificed for that purpose. The U.S. has to recognize
that our people sacrificed and should pay more attention to
our concerns."
At the negotiating table in Baghdad, Kurdish leaders Masoud
Barzani and Jalal Talabani have rebuffed numerous requests
by America to disband the peshmerga. They want Kurdistan to
be responsible for its own defense and they want a share of
Iraq's oil revenue to pay for it. They also want the oil rich
city of Kirkuk included in their jurisdiction. The city was
a Kurdish one until Saddam Hussien embarked on a campaign
of ethnic cleansing.
Nobody here seems interested in rejoining Iraq. "Its
scary down there," one shop keeper tells me when I tell
him I'll be traveling on to Baghdad. "There are so many
terrorists."
The fighting in Baghdad and the bombing last month of the
Kurdish Parliament here in Arbil seem to have intensified
the desire to be separate from Iraq. Last week, Kurdish activists
traveled to Baghdad to present American Administrator Paul
Bremer with a petition signed by more than 1.7 million Kurds.
The petition asks for a referendum on independence for Kurdistan.
Trade unionist Handrian Ahmed helped organize the petition:
"We have to get independence in our country," he
says, "so that none of the calamaties that happened to
Kurdish people under the previous regime will ever happen
again."
Such a declaration might bring a regional war, though. Over
the weekend, a senior member of Turkey's General Staff, warned
his Army would not tolerate an ethnic federation in Iraq --
let alone independence.
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