Bankrupt Kurdistan is no longer 'the other Iraq'

The Kurdistan region of Iraq has hit rock bottom. What was once a promising 'other Iraq' is now a politically and financially bankrupt disappointment, writes Judit Neurink. 

"Welcome to 'the other Iraq'," tourists would be told when holidaying in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. The three Iraqi provinces the Kurds have governed since 1992 were not only lush, green and mountain cool, but also more liberal, democratic and safer than the rest of Iraq.

It was the promise of democratic development that brought me to Kurdistan's cultural capital, Sulaymaniyah in 2008. After years of regularly visiting Iraq to train journalists, I had come to set up a media centre focused on developing the role of media, politicians and police in their new democracy.

Here, intellectual freedom - struggling in the region as a whole - finally seemed a given. Independent media started up, we organised debates, people dared to speak out. It was a completely different situation from the rest of Iraq and would only get better with time.

Twelve years later, that promise seems to have vanished behind the mountains. Soon after I settled in Kurdistan, one of my students was murdered for exposing ties between politicians and prostitution. More colleagues have been killed since. Tribal loyalties and overeager party members were usually blamed, in order to hide the darker and still less palatable truth.

A press law was now in place, but most courts still tried journalists using older laws that allowed them to impose punishments for reporting on taboo subjects like fraud, self-enrichment and abuses of powers.

I have seen TV studios set on fire and journalists beaten, harassed and arrested. Independent papers have now disappeared from the streets, and are now fighting for survival online. The freedoms the Kurds had worked so hard to prioritise, have been taken away by politicians who always put their own survival first.

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Iraqi Kurds split over Kurdish independence vote

Iraqi Kurds are slated to vote on an independent Kurdistan on September 25. Even though most are in favor of getting their own state, many are still considering to vote 'no' as Judit Neurink reports from Sulaimaniya.

"It's hard to say 'no'," said 27-year-old Ali Faraj, a journalist working in Sulaimaniya, the second city of the Kurdistan region of Iraq.
Every Kurd wants an independent Kurdish state, he added - so, when they vote in today's referendum for independence, he said most Kurds will vote 'yes'.

But like many people here in Sulaimaniya, a bastion of opposition to Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani who initiated the poll, Faraj said he wants the referendum to be delayed.
"Perhaps even till 2019, so there's time to prepare it really well," he told DW.

Even though independence is his dream, too, Faraj says "it is too dangerous now."
He points to the poor state of the economy, which could influence the outcome of the poll, but also to negative reactions from Iraq and abroad: from neighboring Iran and Turkey, in particular, who have threatened to close the borders through which the Kurds in Iraq get most of their goods.

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Bringing in a cat; then and now

The new kitten that I got from Beirut was quiet and a bit scared inside the special travel bag, and I was a bit nervous too; how would we be received in Iraqi Kurdistan?

After arrival at Erbil Airport, I reported to the customs there. Ah, a cat. Did I have the passport and the declaration of health? Could I wait five minutes for the vet?

I was taken back in my mind to my arrival at Sulaymaniya Airport in 2008. I had decided to come and live in Kurdistan to set up a training centre for journalists, and could not leave my two cats behind. So we traveled together to my new home.

Upon arrival in Sulaymaniya, nobody knew what to do about the cats. Everybody wanted to see them, as they had never seen Siamese cats before.

They had been vaccinated and chipped, according to international regulations; it had cost me a lot of money. But at the airport I was asked by the officials what they should do about the passport. Stamp it?

Then I thought I could easily have taken the animals in without bothering with the chips and the vaccines. Even so I understood the nonprofessional treatment at the airport – it was all still so new for the Kurds, then. Their own autonomous region, their own administration, their own airport, everything.

How different this is, six years on. The officials at the airport knew what to do. At the same time as me, a young couple with a tiny dog turned up. And then a real vet came, to look at the papers, at the animals and warn us about the next vaccination that is needed.

I paid 3000 dinar for the vet’s signature, just over 2 dollars. And then I could just walk out and take the kitten home. 

And now, I can feed her on what I find in the shops – while until about two years ago I could not buy cat food locally, nor any cat litter needed for its toilet. I had to import it all. That is a major change, and it tells me that as there is a market for the products, there are more people with cats at home.

Does that mean a change in habits in Kurdish homes, where cats have mostly been chased away? I do not expect so. I think most pets live with foreigners, some perhaps with returnees. The little dog also came in with a couple that had lived abroad.

But what I am celebrating today, is that the Kurdish world around me now is aware of a different life style. And, most importantly, it is not turning away from it, but opening up to it. And now I am waiting for the first visitors to come and admire the kitten, in stead of being afraid of it. 

This blog was first published in Kurdish in the daily Kurdistani Nwe

Let’s celebrate!

My watch was telling me midnight was near, but no activity in the restaurant showed that anyone was aware of it. It was December 31, the Christian neighbourhood Ainkawa in the Iraqi Kurdistan capital of Erbil, two years ago.

I went out for dinner with a friend, expecting to be celebrating the start of a new year in the company of others doing the same. But when it turned twelve, we were the only people toasting to the New Year. There was no champagne, no partying – even worse: the staff badly wanted us to leave.

How different this is in the West! Go to any restaurant, and the staff of the restaurant is watching the clock to make the count-down to twelve, often serving champagne then. People hug and kiss, even if they hardly know each other, and wish each other the very best for the New Year.

In the Netherlands, people then go outside – whatever the weather is – and send for millions of dollars of fireworks into the air. Every year again there is a new record in spending, and every year again people are called upon to spend their money on a better cause.

There is no way they will, as the Dutch love their fireworks. No matter that the smoke of all the Chinese beauties sent up in the air is bad for the environment and the health. No matter that every year people lose eyes or fingers. In Holland, nobody can imagine New Year without fireworks.

Partying at home or in cafés and restaurants will go on into the small hours. TV channels extend their broadcasts, many showing special music and dancing shows.

Since a couple of years I have seen some fireworks being ignited in Kurdistan too, but always long before midnight. I know of the odd party with singers on New Years Eve, but it always ended before midnight. This year I see restaurants advertising for the evening. With more and more expats living in Kurdistan, change is on the way. But it still has a long way to go. Compare the images of the international TV channels: the whole world celebrates the changing of the old into the new year at the moment supreme: midnight. Then people gather at Times Square in New York and at Trafalgar Square in London.

Kurdistan has Nowruz, that is when the Kurdish New Year starts and fireworks are lit. But almost everywhere else, the year ends in December. Kurdistan could celebrate twice.

I wonder when we will see the crowds celebrating at midnight at the Fountain Square near the Erbil Citadel, or at Saray Square in Sulaymaniya. Because when December changes to January, for the world that is when 2014 starts. And that is when you celebrate. 


This blog was first published in Kurdish in the daily Kurdistani Nwe

Freedom to vote

What is the fun of waving a flag from a car window? Or dancing in front of the PUK headquarters in Salim Street in Sulaymaniya? Or driving up and down the street with the car stereo as loud as possible?

What is the use of all those thousands of flags waving their colours all through the city? Green next to blue, yellow, orange or brown and sometimes even wrapped up together by the wind?

Kurdistan is electing a new parliament, and that is all people want to think about. Every evening, hooting cars with people waving flags dominate the cities.
 
Europeans watch and try to understand. Our elections are so different. We have posters too, and flags and balloons. But they convey the message of the party: against more taxes, look after the environment, better healthcare, take care of the elders, hands off our social security.

Campaigns are meant to attract people, to convince them to vote for the party. Most people in the West vote because of the principles and ideas of the party. Every party has a program that has been agreed on by its members in a special session with the party leaders.

To inform potential voters about it, politicians talk to journalists and take part in debates on radio, TV and in halls all over the country. On Saturdays, when people go shopping, those politicians are in the shopping malls, markets and streets, to explain what change their party is going to make.

What a difference to Kurdistan, where campaigns are meant to show off the love for the party, the loyalty and the unity. How can the flags make people change their minds? They won’t and they don’t. In Kurdistan you are with a party because of your family, because of the past, of the job or the income, of the car, of the house, the financial support for the old and the sick…

In my world we call this buying votes, and it is strictly forbidden. Because in a democracy, politicians have to earn their votes, by their good governance, or lose them when they have failed. That is why we can see big changes after elections, as the results force parties to make new coalitions as to form a government. Which means change.

At the same time, in my country, the civil servants stay on. The administration is the factor of continuity. While governments change, they make sure promises are kept and long term policies are continued. Civil servants are neutral, their political colour is not public, again quite different from Kurdistan.

Kurdistan has an electoral system in between democracy and socialism. It needs to consider if this is what fits the country with its tribal heritage. But the main issue is, that it should be the people who decide in the polling booth. And the vote should be free. Free, and no strings attached. Even for those who wave the flags.

Driving without rules

,,Bexerbe, baresz, fermou!'' The security guard at the checkpoint waves me through with a surprised note in his voice. ,,Welcome, respected person, go ahead!'' I see him wonder: A woman, on her own, driving - and she is a Westerner!

This is my experience of three weeks of driving by myself, instead of being driven by a driver or a friend as before. After almost five years in Kurdistan I am now driving my own car, and traveling across the country. And at every checkpoint - and Kurdistan has quite a few - the guards almost salute. Quite a change from before, when my driver was always asked about my identity and reason for being on the road and we were far too often stopped for no apparent reason.

When I look around me, it is clear to me that I must be considered a rare species in Kurdistan. I see hardly any women driving cars on the motorway, let alone on their own. The few women that do drive by themselves, stay mainly in the cities, it seems. People are always telling me not to let anyone in the car, not to take hitch hikers - the message being that it would not be safe and possibly even dangerous for a woman on her own. But I do not feel unsafe, not in that sense.

In Europe I used to like driving. I had my driving license when I was 18, and have owned a number of cars until parking in Amsterdam became too expensive for me. But in Kurdistan driving is not so much fun - it is rather stressful. First of all because of the way people drive. Driving is Europe is organised, even though people break rules and make their own. In Kurdistan nobody seems to know there are rules, and people can make the most unexpected moves in their cars. So you do not know what to expect, apart from that you should expect everything.

Nobody seems to watch his/her mirror, so anyone can move in front of you, without of course signaling where he/she is going. Because of that, people honk when they feel the driver next to them has not noticed there is someone driving there. People have no problem at all overtaking on the right hand side, so you might have cars shooting by on both sides. Cars are stopped just about anywhere, so you might just almost drive into someone who is stopped in your lane.

With my driver we used to comment on the bad drivers - they were donkeys, are had no brains. Car drivers shout at each other, when they get irritated by the behavior of others - and they do not seem to realise they do not behave much better themselves.

Making a neat line at the traffic light, or at the checkpoints is something almost unheard of. Drivers try to overtake, to be first, so often at the checkpoints two lines have to melt into one - and that is the place where the big cars show they are not just big but also bigger than your car. And when traffic jams happen, Kurdish drivers make it all worse by trying to fill up any free space and overtaking on all sides. I have seen jams which were knotted so tightly they could hardly be solved when the initial reason had been resolved.

On the motorway drivers behind you tend to flash their lights at you when they want to pass. But they do not consider the fact that you are behind someone that you want to pass too, and that this car also, etc. The feeling on the highways in Kurdistan is that everybody wants to be there first - and I find it feels sometimes really like a big racing track.

But then imagine a racing track with holes, and with tarmac that is badly damaged by many heavy lorries. For that reason often the right hand lane is not really fit for driving a car at a speed of  100 km per hour or more. So most cars stick to the left hand lane, which usually is of better quality. Here you can really get stuck behind people who cling to this lane with a speed of 80 km an hour. Impatient Kurdish drivers will then overtake on the right, if lights and horns do not have any effect.

And then, because of the bad state of some parts of the roads, there are the stones. I remember the adds on Dutch TV about repairing the 'star' in your car window in the event of a little stone hitting it. Well, this repair is very much needed in Kurdistan where almost no cars have front windows that have been saved from the flying stones. I have been driving around now for just a few weeks and already had my first hit with a little stone.

There is a connection between the fact that there are so many of this stones, and the bad driving. 
They fly around because impatient drivers use the hard shoulder to overtake, not caring about the stones they catapult into the air in this way. And because of drivers, also lorries, making U-turns where that is not allowed, again loosening the stones.

And then there are the traffic bumps. Yes, speed bumps on the motorway - can you imagine it? And even worse: mostly without warning signs. Just image that in the dark. It is a good thing that I have driven from Sulaymaniya to Erbil hundreds of times with my driver, so I know where the bumps are. Because you have to slow down to an almost stop, if you want to keep your car suspension healthy. And then you have to warn the drivers behind you by putting on the alarm lights, so they will not smash into you. 

Driving in Kurdistan is such an adventure, that I realise I hardly have time to see the beautiful countryside anymore. I need my eyes on the road, in the mirror, on anything that can happen and needs my reaction to it. Like the dogs, that cross the road in two's or three's. Many of them do not survive these moves, and the sides of the roads are littered with their bodies. Or like cows and donkeys, that cross highways by themselves on their way home after a day of walking and eating, and like sheep and goats that are shepherded by the side of the road, but also across the road when the shepherd wants them to.

In the middle of all these adventures, the checkpoints are almost little sanctuaries. Slow down, wind your window down, say ,,bashi brakam'' to the guards. Those poor guys who stand there all day looking into cars and waving them through. They are so happy with anything that is out of the ordinary. Like a Western woman on her own, mastering the Kurdistan roads. They smile, I smile. And I am sure the guards have discussed me between themselves - this rare phenomenon.

I have seen a lot of change in Kurdistan in the past five years. But I have not seen it become less of a man's world. I wonder how long it will take until Kurdish women will have become more independent and brave, and more of them will have dared to leave the cities driving their cars. Like elsewhere in the world, they might have a good influence on the behavior on the Kurdish roads. Not to mention all the other reasons why that would be a good development.

Too many hotels do not serve the guests

Two new hotels closed in the past weeks in Erbil. Perhaps that does not seem very big news, but it is the outcome of an interesting trend. A trend that has nothing to do with business plans and market research, only with spending money and the wish to get rich fast.

When I settled in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2008, there were perhaps a dozen hotels in the capital Erbil and a litte less in Sulaymaniya and Duhok. These were not enough to receive all the visitors from the rest of Iraq coming for holidays during the religious Eid festival and the Kurdish new year Nowroz. That was never a problem in the past. When the weather was fine, people would camp in the parks, or private houses would open their doors for the guests.

Since Kurdistan became a state within the Iraqi federation, tourism has been on a magic word. Get tourists in and get rich, was the idea. Rich foreigners would want to come and spend their money, and they need a hotel to stay. And at the same time, foreign businessmen started arriving to work with oil companies and other international companies.

After 2007, the building of new hotels started. Mainly in the 3 star category, but since then also three 5 star hotels have opened in Erbil and recently one in Sulaymaniya. The capital was the first with a Rotana and a Divan Hotel, as most of the foreign businesses and the diplomatic services are based here. Over the years, more than 200 hotels have been built, and in the small town of Ainkawa twelve with more under construction. Some people suggest that most of the new hotels are paid with money earned in illegal trade or other illegal activities. (Foto Rudaw)

The fact that many of the hotels were built by investors and then rented out to someone who wanted to furnish and manage it, is part of the problem. The rents are far too high for the hotels to be able to make profit.

All these hotels offer a total of, so I calculated, some 16.000 beds. That is far more than the market needs. They might fill up during the religious and new year holidays, but otherwise there is never enough guests for all those beds. Businessmen take the top end of the market, or rent an apartment or house that also serves as their office.

Because of the competition, prices went down. If you want to attract guests and compete, that seemed the easiest way. Competing by quality was not an option, as there is not enough well trained staff for all these hotels. But by decreasing the price, it became even harder for hotels to break even and to remain in business. Some managed by renting out rooms as office space, others just cut down the cost and thus cut down on service. Many of the 3 star hotels are so badly managed and offer such lousy services that guests will not return.

At the same time the cost of the electricity went up, with now almost 24 hours a day being covered by 'raisy', government electricity. The government increased the price quite a bit over the past years. In Erbil also labour costs increased as a consequence of the competition, although with Syrian refugees since the summer coming in and begging for jobs the salaries have come down a little again.

Nobody has really profited from the boom in hotel building. Those who thought to get rich, might perhaps if they were lucky have been able to get the first years rent. But the majority of hotel owners are suffering. And after the initial decrease of the price, the guests are no longer profiting either. Who wants the choice between bad and worse, in a system of hotel qualifications that cannot be trusted - because there is no guarantee that the 3 stars that were given at the opening are really still applicable for many of the newer hotels.

The hotel association begged the authorities to put a stop to the building, having predicted the problems already years ago. It is the hotel managers that know the market best, so they could see that apart from those few holidays when Baghdadi's and Basroui's fled to Kurdistan for a few days they would never be able to fill all those beds. Yet another problem is, that those guests mostly look for the cheapest accommodation, so their presence does only affect part of the many hotels.

But the authorities did not act, probably thinking that in this new capitalist system the market should do the work. Probably knowing that some of the hotels would collapse, and thinking this is the risk the investors were taking. Yet if the authorities had taken their role as the regulator seriously, they could have prevented the disaster - because there surely are more closures under way. Regulating the amount of hotels built by matching it to market expectancy would have made all the difference to the investors who are now losing, the managers who try to keep hotels running on a shoe string and staff that is sacked because of lack of income.

Build this nation in the hearts of the Kurds

,,Which do you like better, Erbil or Sulaymaniya'', asks the taxi driver in Kurdish. I sigh, as I am so tired of this question that does not seem have a really good answer. Today I chose the 'I like Amsterdam best' from the list of possible answers not showing preference to one city over the other.

It happens everywhere in Iraqi Kurdistan, that people - and not only taxi drivers even though they seem to have the most hits - ask you to choose between the two main Kurdish cities. In Erbil you are supposed to say you prefer Hawler (its name in Kurdish), just as in Sulaymaniya they expect you to prefer their own city.

What is the use? Erbil is a village that grew into a city with mundane sides for the many foreigners that settled in the past 3 years but with a conservative and religious nucleus. It lies on a plain, and has the extreme heat in the summer (up to 50 degrees C) and the cold in the winter. The government, the ministries and the parliament are housed here, and it is the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. It has also become the trading heart of the whole of Iraq, and the place with the most expats.

Sulaymaniya has just been declared the cultural capital of Iraqi Kurdistan - confirming what in fact has been the reality over the past years. Suli or Sulee - the name started to be used by the Americans and taken over more and more by the Slemani's - is a busy university town surrounded by mountains and for that reason always about 5 degrees cooler than Erbil, which has survived the influx of conservative villagers during the Anfal operation and is considered the most open minded of the Kurdish cities.

They both have their own appeal, yet Kurds feel you should prefer one over the other. And that is not because they are interested in the opinion of a foreigner - actually they are not - it is because the reference shows political preference. Those who like Suli are with PUK, those for Hawler with KDP.

Yet are we not supposed to be in the process of nation building in Iraqi Kurdistan? Since 2006 the Kurds have one capital, one parliament, one government. And yet, at the same time, the sense of nationality is that of the towns where people originate from. The pride of the people is for their own city. Not many people travel around a lot - I find that I know more of Iraqi Kurdistan than many of the people around me. And I even have friends in Suli who try very hard not to travel to Erbil. So what they know, is what they like.

This local nationalism even shows in the jokes. Slemani's have jokes about the Hawleri's - often about their stupidity - Hawleri's joke about Slemani women all being in charge and bullying their poor husbands.

This whole thing is getting odder since the KDP and the PUK formed a government together - trying to leave behind the animosities of the past, trying to wipe out the memories of the civil war in the nineties. And yet that is probably why this competition is still so alive: those memories cannot be wiped out just like that. To change Iraqi Kurdistan into one nation, instead of a number of town states, the painful past has to be addressed first.

To make the nation work, people have to come to terms with the past that divided them - and still does because the wounds never really healed. What is needed foremost is to discuss what happened, how it happened, and that it will never happen again.That the dead and the missing are dear to both sides. Closure is needed for those families that still have loved ones missing since the war, so the animosity against the party that was responsible can finally start to diminish. People need to feel sure that nobody will again get help from outside against the other, that the common Kurdish identity is always going to be stronger than the political arguments.

And the Kurds have to learn more about the country outside their home towns. They should be stimulated to travel around, and not only for a picnic but also to see the relics of the past and the beauty of the Kurdistan they hardly know. They should be stimulated to feel proud of all that, and not only of their own city.

Only then, can the building of the nation really start. Because a nation is not only in the land, in the politics, it is also very much in the hearts and the minds of the people.

Clean water, no cholera!

Cholera. That is not something one associates with modernity. Yet it has hit Kurdistan badly, and the authorities do not seem to have an answer to the problem.

It is the water from the lake of Dukan, the authorities say, that caused the first major outbreak of cholera in Sulaymaniya since 2007. Some 202 cases of the disease have been recorded in the city, and 1800 cases of vomiting and diarrhea that ended in  hospital. Four people are said to have died.

Every summer the threat of cholera hangs over Sulaymaniya. After the earlier outbreaks, restaurants were told by the authorities no longer to serve jugs of water with the meals, but only bottled water. The sales of water in plastic bottles went up enormously from that moment. It helped somewhat, but every year with the heat the cholera returns. This year is just exceptionally bad, and it seems to have taken the health authorities by surprise. The Health Ministry at the beginning just ignored it, probably hoping it would die down as it did before. And after twelve days of daily new cases, the parliament met to discuss the problems.

The outcomes of those deliberations were the order not to drink the water from the tap, and to keep away from vegetables. As we say in Holland: only after the calf has drowned, the well is closed over.

The authorities have been warned before, and again and again, of the danger of cholera - as it returns every year in the summer. The cause is complicated, and part of a bigger problem. The Kurdish cities are growing fast, and because of the speed of the growth and the lack of vision of those responsible, they do not have a good sewage system nor a good water treatment system. Drinking water comes from the lakes, which also serve as the exit of the sewage - so no wonder the cholera bacteria was found in Dukan lake. This is the question of the chicken and the egg, which was first?

Another cause of the problem are the wells that people - and the government - are using. I know that many of the deep wells in Sulaymaniya have been extremely low since the end of spring. Reason: the city uses far more water than it has, and far more than the winter rains allow it to. And the reason for that I have covered before: people are not careful with water. The Kurds are big users, with almost 800 liters per day per person. And up till now very little is being done to change this.

On top of that is the policy to 'greenify' the motorways in the cities. It is great to have plants and trees in the middle and at the sides of the main roads - but all the green needs water. And if plants are chosen that are not from the region, and only thrive with a lot of water, that also adds to the problems.

The low level of the wells means that the little water left in the bottom may well be polluted.And the wells that people dug themselves may well be polluted too by the sewage when it rains. Every evening the Kurdish capital Erbil stinks of sewage - because there is no good sewage system. In many areas there is even none, with houses just using underground tanks for their waste water, that overflow - thus causing the stench, and posing a threat to national health.

In Sulaymaniya, every year when the rains start, the water from the taps show a muddy color. It looks like the rain is getting into the water system, which of course makes the water no longer fit for drinking.


Every summer, in the lake of Darbandikhan fish die mysteriously. The media are keen to report about poisons that are used, sabotage or otherwise. But what really happens is that the lake is so full of the shit  - excusez le mot - of Sulaymaniya that the water has too little oxygen for the fish to survive.

Photo Kurdish Globe

Then: the vegetables. Yes, I hear from farmers that because of the lack of clean water, a mixture with waste water is used to water the crops. But when you clean vegetables well with clean water and dry them before cutting and eating, or cook them in boiling water, I do not see why the bacteria would still be a threat.

The cause of cholera is a bigger one than drinking water and vegetables. It is a government that is allowing cities to grow without taking into consideration that water management is needed. It cannot be that in a country as rich on oil and with a booming economy as Kurdistan that wants to be the shining example of the region, there is no vision or money or planning to make sure its citizens have clean water.

The right to clean water is a human right. It is a necessity, as the cholera outbreak has shown. And it definitely is not a luxury. It needs politicians that get their priorities right. If the water problem is not tackled soon, Kurdistan will become unlivable. It has no seawater that it can desalinate. It is depending on the rain and snow of the winter for the flow if its rivers and the level of its deep wells. It needs to manage water, to clean waste water, to reuse water. It needs action. And soon!

Tourists and the Other Iraq

The camera's click. Dutch tourists line up to preserve the image of the Kurdish landscape for when they are back home. The bus is waiting to take them to the next stop, elsewhere in Iraqi Kurdistan.

After having organised two trips for small tourist groups from the Netherlands, I decided to guide the third tour myself, to see what the guests like and what is needed. It was an interesting adventure. Not only because I got to know a group of nine people quite well in seven days, and because I found the job of a tour leader is not an easy one, but also because it showed me my new country through the eyes of strangers.

When you read the guides the Kurdistan Ministry of Tourism prints, there must be lot of locations in Kurdistan that are interesting for tourists.But when you visit them, this is not really true. Tourists are in different categories. People getting away from the heat in the south have different interests then Westerners who come to discover a new, relatively unspoiled country.

So which subjects were discussed a lot in the group I showed around? The weather - because this September start is still a hot one. The sights - the many different mountains and their colours, the waterfalls and the nature. The bad shape of monuments. The lack of restaurants and hotels on the right spots. The impressive past that is still to be seen. One of my guests told me she had a nightmare after visiting the Red Prison in Sulaymaniya, as the former jail of Saddam's security service has been kept as it was, to give people a good idea of the suffering that went on there.

The bad shape of monuments is a problem the Kurdish authorities have to address. I was shocked on my preparation trip, to find the old gate at Amedi neglected and full of junk. How can you walk down over the broken stones, how can you expect tourists to see through the junk? Only historians who are interested in the Assyrian motives of the gate might do that. But the tourist group I had decided that Amedi was not really as interesting as I had promised. Mister Mayor, can you please do something about this...?

For the same reason I skipped part of the program. Why go to Qaskapan if the walk to the Kings Grave ends at the bottom of a rock that is hard to conquer for most people? Only because the authorities removed the wooden steps to prevent unmarried couples from having a good time in the cave?

And then the lack of restaurants and hotels at the right places. Erbil, Sulaymaniya and Duhok are so crowded with hotels that the owners can hardly survive the competition. Yet were are they in the countryside of Sulav and Amedi? And where is the little restaurant at the lake of Dukan or at Darbandigan? Tourists want to sit and watch with a coffee, tea, juice or even a meal. And the hotel at the Dukan Lake is so difficult to find it feels like a treasure hunt to go there.

Kurdistan wants more tourists. In both Sulaymaniya, Erbil and Duhok big family parks with Ferris wheels and other games are being built. Fun for the family. But that is not what tourists from the West expect to find. Of course, when the cable cars in Sulaymaniya go up to Azmar, that will be an attraction for them too. But they mainly want to discover the history of the country, and the feel of it. They want to enjoy the sights in a comfortable way. This is not about selling alcohol or opening nightclubs. This about realising that different tourists need different attractions.

The bowling halls, the skating rings, the cinema's - they may attract the visitors from inside Iraq, and perhaps also in the future from the region. But to attract visitors that also spend money, different attractions are needed. Historical sites needs to be kept and to be easily accessible. Places of beauty should also provide some possibility to stay and enjoy the sight. That could be a chaixana - tea house - but even a couple of benches are a good option.


The rocks that Kurdish artist Ismail Khayat repainted recently on the road between Koya and Erbil - his peace monument from the brother war - does deserve some benches. And it deserves some respect as well. It is unbearable that in election time the monument is filled with graffiti. The waterfall of Ahmadawa badly needs to be cleaned from plastic bottles and cans - and the be kept clean. Historical sights need sign posts. And another issue: guards at the checkpoints should stop checking the passports of the visitors, as if they are criminals or terrorists. They are your guests, they do not want to be hassled, they are on holiday, want to relax and only be treated as honoured guests.

And do you realise that Kurdistan has hardly any souvenirs, apart from the little painted pebbles Ismail Khayat is offering, or souvenir shops, apart from the shop of the Carpet Museum at the Erbil Citadel?

Of course, when the tourists come, they enjoy the famous Kurdish hospitality. They admire the sights, they love the mountains. But one or two of these groups are not enough to get the message across that Kurdistan is 'the other Iraq'. If just a few changes are made, and if a few people in the right places are aware of the economical and political impact of happy tourists going home with the right stories, then Kurdistan well really profit.

Cherish the old stones

My neighbor pulled down his house and is now building something new. The house cannot have been more than twenty years old - at the most. Yet this is the habit in Iraq: old is bad, new is nice. For that reason, hardly anything old is left.

I come from a country where the old buildings are carefully preserved; tourists love the canals of Amsterdam for that reason, and the center of old towns like Zwolle, Edam, Volendam. Preservation is only possible if people see the sense of maintenance, of repairing what is broken. Yet the new riches in Iraqi Kurdistan want new things, and do not treasure the old. They need to show off that they can afford to buy and to build. And when they do, they often use cheap materials like concrete blocks and build houses that will look bad again in a couple of years.

Of course, this is an old and well-known phenomenon and definitely not unique for Iraq. The town of Zwolle that I mentioned before, only kept its beautiful old heart because of the poverty that swept over this once very prosperous trading town. Holland also had a boost of renewal - and yet at the same time people were protesting against it. When in the seventies the metro was built in Amsterdam and a historical but rather derelict neighborhood was to be demolished, protests soared. This was mostly because of the cheap housing that was getting lost, I must admit, but also because an authentical part of town was torn down.

Protests against demolition are not heard of in Kurdistan, and it is hard to get people to realize they should treasure their national heritage. I wrote before in this blog about Al Qosh, and the Jewish heritage getting lost there. I've been there since, taking people to see it, and I talked about it to (international) officials whom I hope can help. Recently the key-keeper of the ruins of the synagogue has died. And the bones of the prophet Nahum the Jews came to worship here up till the fifties when most of them left, have been transferred from the tomb in the ruins to a Assyrian Church nearby - as the Christians consider Nahum as a Saint.

The synagogue in Al Qosh still badly needs repairs. It does not have to be rebuilt, but something has to be done to keep what is left at least. Because it is part of Iraq's heritage. The plight of the Jews, who were very much part of the fabric of the society but left almost all within less than ten years, needs to be remembered and retold. The synagogue will be a landmark in this remembrance.

My present home town Sulaymaniya has lost most of its old Jewish quarters, although the area still is called the Julekan. And there are a few buildings in the town center that still tell you the story of the old town, where the only king the Kurds have had in the last century was from (the ringroad Malik Mahmoud is named after him). In Sulaymaniya's bazaar area there are still some houses from this era, but they are not well maintained and have been divided between a number of families living there.

Even worse is the faith of the heritage of Erbil. The oldest inhabited area in the Middle East, with a citadel that is being preserved with the help of Unesco, it is quickly loosing the rest of its antique buildings. When part of the centuries-old bazaar was pulled down, nobody protested. And the result is of course special; it gave the city the heart it needed, with the citadel as its center. Yet, all this was done without any real discussion about the value of what was being demolished.

And Erbil has an even bigger problem than Sulaymaniya with the preservation of its heritage. Around the citadel, old houses are crumbling. You can see from the way they are built - red brick stone and nice designs - that they must be at least fifty years and perhaps even a century old. Yet they are falling down, are being used for storage, turned into rubbish dump and are pulled down to make space for car parks. And as some of these derelict places are used by addicts to take their shots, I can predict the future: this area will also end up under the bulldozer.

Already now, the local government has been putting up new, but seemingly old walls all around the city center to hide the old and derelict places. And by hiding them, they have ceased to exist.

The last pictures I am showing here were made by my colleague Ako Kaleri, and can be found on this special place. He worries about this national heritage like I do. Because we both know, that countries need their history and they need their heritage. Only if you know where you come from, what your roots are, you can be a full person, and a complete nation.

For this reason I join Ako in the request to our Kurdish politicians and decision makers. Respect your national heritage. Keep it, cherish it. Not only is there no future without a past, it will also bring you income. From tourism, and eventually also from housing prizes. Bring the old houses back to life, with new and modern insides in the old, repaired walls, and people will want to buy them. I have seen this happen in Amsterdam, in Edam, in Beirut, in Batroon, in Damascus even. Old eventually becomes attractive again.


My dear Kurdish politician friends: please look after your past. You only get one. You need it to educate your youth to cherish what is valuable, instead of always wanting something new. Because the day will come, that new generations will be asking the question of who was responsible for pulling down their heritage. Don't let it get that far, please.

This comment reached me from outside the blog:

Azad Shekhany (Dean of the college-university at Sulaimany Technical College) wrote:
this is true Judit in Iraq as well as in Kurdistan and almost in all oil-rich Arab countries. the old objects are considered something of the past that should be 'eliminated'. But when all the precious things of the past will be totally eliminated then these countries will wake up and realize who much ridiculous and senseless are 'modern' houses. Like in Europe until 50 years ago people were astonished by modernism trend, then fortunately they realized they were wrong, and started to rehabilitate the architectural heritage. So it needs time for them to understand, but when they start to understand the value of the old houses, then it will be too late.

When will the bubble burst?

,,Why don't you buy a house in Kurdistan, in stead of paying such a high rent'', people have asked me. A good question, with rents in Erbil as high as 2000 dollars a month for a 3 bedroom apartment and 3000 and more for a villa. Yet buying might mean getting caught up in the bubble of Kurdistan's housing business.

Kurdistan is booming. There is hardly a neighbourhood in the main Kurdish towns and cities without building activities going on. Housing, industry, hotels, shopping malls - Kurdistan is building at a speed that is hardly imaginable. Compounds of luxurious apartments are being filled, and I have been told that at the moment some 62.000 units are still in the process of being build in Erbil alone.

At the same time, in the Kurdish capital Erbil the prices of housing have gone up enormously. In a society where an average government wage is around 600 dollars, the rent of apartments and family houses has gone up to between 1800 and 4000 dollars. That is partly because there is a lack of good offices, and (international) companies have taken over many of the family houses. Most of the houses in English Village and Italian Village, two neighbourhoods originally built for upper class families, have been taken over by companies. With investors and oil industries arriving, there is a lot of request. These companies can pay more than a family, so the rents have gone up to highs that hardly any family will be able to afford any more.

This seems to be a process that repeats itself.A process that starts with the sale of housing before it is built, and the reselling of it before it is even finished. Before anyone can move in, most apartments have been sold twice or three time to new owners. I know of apartments that cost around 100.000 dollars when they were still on paper, and are now doing around 250.000. Most owners are not interested in the property to live in it; they see it as an investment. For that reason, many owners do not even bother to rent the place out, and many apartments remain empty.

Those who do rent their property out, ask high rents. They only need to look at the market, which is dominated by companies, to decide on a slightly lower rent than the one asked in other neighbourhoods. This starts the move, as it did from Italian to English Village, and now to the newer apartments of for instance Royal City.

What happens to the older houses, that are left in this game? That is where the bubble comes in. It might be a profitable game to buy and sell housing, but there is always someone who in the end pays the bill. At the moment that is the latest owner of the house that is no longer sell able, as other, newer buildings are more interesting. He is stuck with a building for which he paid a price that was already far too high. He was the poor guy who did not realise he was at the end of the game - as I am sure there are many like him.

Yet the game continues, and housing prices and rents in Erbil are still on the rise. Who can afford a rent like that, you wonder. And: should the government not interfere, as those who the housing projects were planned for, do not at all profit from them. Which means that there is a huge demand for affordable housing, and that in itself again pushes up the prices.

However in Sulaymaniya, where building is going on on a bit slower rate, the prices are on the way back down. Here owners still need the rent, it seems, and renters have been clever enough to use the lower rate elsewhere in town to start the descent down to more decent prices. That will probably also be the way out for those who got stuck with unsellable houses in Erbil. Bring down the rent, and many will move back into the slightly older areas.

This makes you wonder when this balloon is going to burst. And who is going to suffer - and who to profit. I'd rather be at the side looking in, than in the middle. So if I buy a house, preferably not in Kurdistan, however much this country has got under my skin.

This reaction reached outside this website:

Azad Shekhany (Dean of the college-university at Sulaimany Technical College) wrote:

"Dear Judit, almost you find the same housing situation in Sulaymania, with renting around from 1550 to 2000 USD per month and prices of accommodation from the worst area of the city around 15000 USD to the MIDDLE and "higher" areas reaching around 220.000 (for apartment) and 700.000 usd for a villa. it is full madness. this is a result of a full speculation from one side, and the absence of housing and land market policy by the regional rulers. "

Teach Kurds about genocide

It was a catching and emotional sight. 730 coffins draped with the Kurdish flag stood side by side. Politicians made speeches. The coffins were taken under military escort to Chamchamal. Buried at the cemetery of the new Anfal Monument and Cultural Centre, with the Kurdish president and former Prime Minister involved in the burial.

These kind of images are not new, and have been repeated in history. They remind me of the graves of those fallen in de Second World War, although I suppose I should be reminded of monuments for people killed during genocides. Because that is what it is all about, in Chamchamal.

The 730 bodies represent the thousands of Kurds killed in Saddams Anfal operation against the Kurds. These bodies were found in mass graves in the deserts of Diwanija, in the South of Iraq. Between 1986 and 1989 thousands of villages were destroyed and the inhabitants taken away, many transported outside Kurdistan to be shot and covered with sand. Only after 2003 the bodies were uncovered in the mass graves. Many still are to be discovered.

The graves do not only contain men, but also women and children. Sometimes whole families are there. Sometimes only the men had been taken while the women and children were relocated in special camps, that later became towns like Chamchamal.

 (Photo Kawa Shekh Abdulla)

The identity of those in the coffins is not always known. For those that have not yet been identified, DNA profiles have been made, and will be compared to those of family members of the missing to be made in the next weeks and months.

Still many Kurds are waiting for news about their missing, like about the father of Nabaz Fatih (30), who was eight years old when his family was taken away. His father never returned. "I can't speak, I just cry," he said to the Kurdish newspaper Rudaw. "I look and I cry. I am very, very sad. Because all those people were family – not Peshmarga, just working and doing business – and they're all gone for nothing."
 (Photo Kawa Shekh Abdulla)

Anfal has left lasting scars to the Iraqi Kurds. Not only were many villages destroyed and never rebuild - because those that survived did not want to go back to a living far away from civilization, hospitals, schools - collective towns like Chamchamal were fatherless families went to live still are known for the aggression and crime that derived from the pain and the sadness endured here.

Anfar also brought the Kurds the sense of being a victim, which many still treasure. Victims of Saddam, which endured pain and hardship on a scale about which for a long time hardly anything was known outside the region. Many Kurds still feel this way, even though the evolution of time has brought them victory. Kurdistan now beyond any doubt the best place to be in Iraq - it has developed rapidly, trying to catch up with the world and forget the long years of isolation and discrimination. While the rest of Iraq still suffers violence and infighting, Kurdistan is a safe place.

Anfal is not something to forget. It is something to be remembered for the past generations, to make sure it does not happen again. But remembering and mourning is not enough. It needs to be accompanied with education, to teach young people where xenophobia and discrimination may lead to. To teach them that what had been done to the Kurds, should never be repeated - to nobody. To make them aware of the historic implications. So that cars with stickers like these will quickly disappear from the Suleimani roads.

As this picture was taken (and shared by Facebook) around the same time as the coffins were taken to Chamchamal, it shows that to mourn is not enough. Kurds should realise they are now part of the world. A world where genocide is a crime against humanity. And that goes also for genocides in the past.

Open letter to Nechirvan Barzani

It is looking more and more like a power struggle. The relation between journalists and police in Iraqi Kurdistan is a difficult one. After hundreds of incidents involving journalists in the two last years, the main question is now: how to keep journalists safe.

The reasons for the incidents are many, as we discussed with Kurdish editors in chief in Sulaymaniya, on February 15, 2012. It is because some journalists feel part of the political system, and don't realise their role as informer to people about what is happening in their country. They do not realise their power is in providing information, in a fair and unbiased way, so people can make their own choices.

Journalists in Kurdistan often are activists. In their work, but also on the street. In some cases journalists are known to have thrown stones and shout slogans. And then they stopped being member of the press and became an individual, as one of the participants in the meeting said. For the police, there was no difference between them or other demonstrators.

I was sad that some journalists I respect very much, last year decided to become part of the protest movement by holding speeches. That is not your job, I have tried to tell them, and it makes you seem to be with the demonstrators. Again, that is how the police saw them.

Part of the problem lies with the fractures inside the Kurdish press. Many journalists work for party media, so they are aware of the policy of their party, and of their role in the media that gives people only the information the party thinks is fit to read. Or - to make it more complicated - what they feel the party thinks is fit. Many party journalists censor themselves, while the party would allow much more than they think.

The other group is made up of independent journalists, and journalists working with the opposition parties. For outsiders, they are seen as equal. They are all against the government, they write against it and in some cases act against it.

It is a long way to make the change here. But we can start by making journalists understand their role during demonstrations. I was joined by a number of respected Kurdish journalists and opinion makers when I asked editors in chief to instruct their staff on how to behave during demonstrations. Keep out, do not mingle with the protesters, report from the side lines, and make yourself visible by wearing a special PRESS vest. Be visible and stay safe.

We presented the editors in chief with special orange vests with the word PRESS on them.

Some participants in the meeting called this naive. As if the police would act differently when confronted with journalists in orange vests. They said it would even be dangerous, as journalists would be more recognisable - that would make it only easier to attack, harass and arrest them.

Partly true, we found. The meeting was held in anticipation of the remembrance of the bloody unrest of February 17, 2011. Everybody was expecting new protests, a year after the start of the demonstrations that cost a number of lives and lasted for months. The police too. They were out in force to prevent protesters to take to the streets. And when hardly any came out, they started harassing and arresting the photographers who dared to take pictures of the situation.

Amongst those arrested was (in the picture) Rahman Garib of the Metro Centre to Defend Journalists - in the very first orange vest I presented him with during the meeting. He is a photographer too, and was doing his job. In total around ten reporters were picked up, most of them were released a couple of hours later, some after being threatened severely.

Why? These journalists were doing their job. There is no law in Kurdistan that prohibits reporters from taking photographs during demonstrations. The Press Law says that journalists have the right to collect information. Well, some do it by writing, some by filming, some by taking photographs.

I try to get this message across to young officers in security police - those that are out on the streets during demonstrations. In my lectures I try to get them to understand that police and journalists are both serving the people. That it is their responsibility too to make sure journalists can.But they receive different instructions from their bosses, who still consider journalists as the enemy. Who think that in this day and age of internet you can still avoid that pictures are taken during demonstrations - which are important moments in a democracy when people speak out and should be heard. These bosses get their ideas from the parties they are member of, or from politicians they are close to.

Therefore journalists in Kurdistan will only be safe and able to do their work, when politicians speak out for them. When the new government, that is formed in the next weeks, defends the rights of the press and openly supports measures to improve press freedom and prevent censorship. When it supports the idea that journalists that make themselves visible as such during demonstrations and play their role as reporter without becoming involved, will be allowed to do their work.

I will be knocking on a lot of doors in the coming weeks to get this message across. But right now I knock on one door in particular: the door of the returning Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, who is forming his cabinet at the moment. I have heard him declare support for the press more than once, saying that without free (international) press the Kurds would have been lost in 1991, and that for that reason he supports an independent press in Kurdistan.

Mr Prime Minister, show us you meant it. Help us to keep the journalists in Kurdistan safe. Stop police harassing them, and beating them up. Join us in our campaign to improve the situation of the press in Kurdistan. It will enhance your name, in and outside of Kurdistan, where the criticism about the harsh treatment of the press is growing. But most importantly, it will help to give Kurdistan the press that it needs, and deserves. A responsible press that works for the Kurdish people.