The text in Kurdish.
Usva Auer, a young Finnish woman, travelled to Kurdistan last March. Her travel experiences were published some weeks ago in Voima -magazine. This magazine is very popular among young people in Finland. It is published 60 000 copies, which makes it a big magazine in Finland where population is five million. The story has ten pictures. There are pictures of a restaurant, mountain landscapes, Kurdish flag and teenagers playing foot boll.
How did Usva Auer experience Kurdistan? Travel guide books and the internet page of Finnish Foreign Ministry tell people to stay away from Iraq. She did not know what to expect - at least not people who speak Finnish language! Some refugees had returned from Finland back to their home country. Everything was easier than she had expected, no need even to get a visa. She did not feel that she was in Iraq - she did not even see the flags of Iraq.Auer visited Hewler, Lalesh and Sulaymania. The conclusion of her journey is that Kurds are the most friendly people in the world. The places she visited were like any other towns in the Middle East. It was difficult to believe that the war was so near by. She warmly recommends also other people to spend their holidays in Kurdistan.
She believes that Kurdistan will be soon a popular target for young backpackers who want to experience some adventures. Unfortunately the situation has changed in half a year. There has been problems with flights to Hewler. Many people travel to South Kurdistan via Turkey. But this means that they must meet the unfriendly Turkish customs officers who check their luggage at the boarder. But hopefully the problems with flights will be soon over.
Another thing what makes it difficult to travel to South Kurdistan is that ordinary travel insurances are not valid in Iraq. Insurance companies consider Iraq to be in the highest war risk category so the travel insurance costs about 500 euro per month. Despite South Kurdistan is peaceful compared to other parts of Iraq, the price is the same for every part of the country. Usva Auer thinks that the most difficult thing in travelling in Kurdistan is to get information about it. She had found some information in internet and printed it.
I have written a travel guide book about North Kurdistan in Finnish language. It was published last year. I and the publishing company LIKE agree that when this book is sold out and it is time to make a new edition, there will be information also about South Kurdistan. I am sure soon there will be travel guide books also in English.
Malia Group and Rotana Hotels plan to build a five star hotel in Hewler. I hope that also backpackers are welcome to Kurdistan. They do not bring so much money but some of them will help Kurdistan in other ways.I myself visited North Kurdistan with a small budget the first time in newroz 1997 and lost my heart to the country. After that I have written four books about Kurdistan.
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This is column which I wrote to Gulan . I wanted to add that despite I hope that young backpackers are welcome to South Kurdistan, I also hope that it will not turn to a Middle East version of Goa. But as most of the readers most probably do not know what is Goa and what things are not so good in Goa tourism, I should have explained also this back ground. And the space is limited (little bit more than 500 words). Now the most important thing was to inform Kurds how a Finnish tourist has experienced their country. But this is important topic which needs more attention.
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