Kirkuk photo exhibition in Finland

I have visited Kirkuk almost twenty times since spring 2008.

During these journeys I have taken hundreads of photos. I choose best of them to a photo exhibition in Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

The exhibition is open two weeks from Monday, the 16th August, in STOA, a cultural centre of City of Helsinki. Later the photos will be shown in other places and in Kurdish cultural events.


The exhibition consists of seventeen large pictures.

The name of the exhibition is ”Everyday life in Kirkuk in the shadow of war” (in Finnish language the name is much shorter).

Many people have asked what I want to say with my photos.

The news about Kirkuk in international mass media tell about bomb explosions, war and other problems.

I have seen another Kirkuk. Despite fear and tension the brave Kirkuk people try to make best of their every day life and look forward for a better future.


Many people have helped me in Kirkuk to collect information about the town. With this exhibition I want to express my gratitude for them.

Many people in Kirkuk have repeated the same thing: the problems of Kirkuk are organized from outside Kirkuk, from the neighbouring countries. Kirkuk has been centuries a multicultural city. Various ethnic groups have lived there in peace and harmony with each others.

So should be also the future of Kirkuk! With my pictures I want to show Finnish people a glimpse of optimism about Kirkuk.

On Monday the 16th August fifty people participated the opening party of the exhibition. There were Kurdish people residing in Finland and their Finnish friends.

The Kurdish community in Finland has good relationship with Finnish people. They make together both cultural and political activities.

Genocide process continues in disputed areas

When Kurds speak about the Kurdish genocide, they usually mean the Anfal. But the Anfal is just the peak of it. Genocide is a long process which develops step by step from ”milder” forms to massacres and total annihilation of the target group.

One genocidal method which Saddam Hussein used was deportation. Almost all Kurdish villages were burnt and villagers were forced to move to cities and towns. In Kirkuk the Ba'athist regime deported 200 000 Kurds.

It practised also statistical falsification to make the Kurdish proportion of population to look smaller. Because of this target Kirkuk province was divided to several provinces. This is statistical genocide.

Instability continues in Kirkuk, Mosul and elsewhere in the disputed areas. It is called terrorism and security problem. But we must speak with correct terms: Sunni Islamist terrorism in disputed areas continues the Ba'athist genocide process.

The target of referendum as described in Article 140 is to correct the effects of deportation and to let people to decide whether they want to return to the pre-Ba'athist situation.

Due to delay of the referendum situation in the disputed areas remains unclear. Reconstruction of buildings and public services is delayed. It is difficult for deported people to return to their home areas.

And not just this: people still escape from the disputed areas, especially from Mosul province. Bomb explosions occur in areas where the inhabitants belong to ethnic or religious minorities. Terrorists attack Yezidis, Kakais and Assyrians. People escape to safe areas controlled by KRG or to Europe. One by one, not in such massive operations than during the Saddam days.

But the effect is the same: when Christian and Yezidi families leave, Arabization continues in areas which have been centuries multi-cultural and multi-religious. This is one step in the genocide process, not just terrorism. When Al Qaida makes bomb explosions in other countries it does not lead to deportation of some people from their homes. The damages of terrorist attacks are repaired and life returns back to normal.

International community must regocnize the true character of terrorism in the disputed areas as a genocidal process, not call it just a security problem. The Kurdish genocide in Mosul and Kirkuk started during the 1920s. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed Britain took part of it as its colony. It could not decide what to do with Mosul and Kirkuk. So nowadays Britain has a historical responsiblity to search a permanent solution to stop the genocidal process in the disputed areas.

My interview about the Kurdish genocide

My interview was published in Kurdish language the 10th March 2010 in Hewler newspaper, a daily newspaper which is distributed free of charge. The interview was done by Wirya Rehmany.

Here are Wirya's questions and my answers:

What is your idea about genocide of Kurdish nation in all parts of Kurdistan (especially Kurdistan of Turkey and Iraq)?

The genocide process started when Kurdistan was divided in the Treaty of Lausanne. Kurds become an unregocnised minority in Turkey. In Iraq they did not get cultural or linguistic rights, despite they were recognized as a minority.

Iraq and Turkey started immediately to assimilate Kurds by force. But Kurds did not accept to become Turks and Arabs, they arranged uprisings. Turkey and Iraq replied by force, not by negotiations and compromises. The oppression had from the 1920s genocidal character but it started with milder forms than massacres, for example by cultural and linguistic assimilation. The peak of the genocide process was the Anfal in 1988.

Which kinds of genocide happen in Kurdistan (physical, cultural genocide and etc?

State violence in both Iraq and Turkey towards the Kurds increased from forced assimilation to harder violence, to deportations and massacres.

Polist jurist Raphael Lemkin, on whose theory the United Nation Convention against Genocide is based, has described eight genocidal methods. He analyzed Holocaust, the genocide of the Jews during the Second World War. The methods are: political, social, cultural, economic, biological, physical, religious and moral genocide. 

I think Saddam Hussein used all these methods against the Kurds except the last one. He could not break their moral. Lemkin means by moral genocide for example increase in alcohol consumpition. As far as I know alcohol or drugs are not a problem among the Iraqi Kurds. But in Iran the use of drugs, especially opium among Kurdish youth is so big problem that maybe it fits Lemkin's describtion of a moral genocide. 

I add two genocidal methods: ecological and statistical genocides. Saddam Hussein used both of them in Kurdistan, and they cause still serious problems. 

Ecological genocide means destruction of the environment permanently so that it effects life of the target group for many generations. Maybe in some areas it will turn permanently impossible to live in. 

Iraqi army bombed Halabja by chemical weapons, and the poisons are still in the environment. The ground water in Halabja is polluted, no one knows how badly. Halabja people have much more cancer and other diseases than Iraqi people in general. 

Another example is Germia. The side effect of deportation of hundreads of thousands of people to so called model villages is pollution of the environment. The areas which were first refugee camps have become permanent residence areas. For example Kalar is on the edge of desert. The arrival 200 000 people causes permanent damages to the vulnerable environment. The ground water will run out after some decades and the area becomes desert. Next generation must search a better place to live. 

Statistical genocide means falcification of statistics and research. Saddam practised it especially in Kirkuk province. 

How do you see the Halabja and Anfal case in high tribunal of Iraq? If Halabja chemical bombardment is genocide and why the court didn't recognize it as genocide?

I am not familiar to these trials. I see that the Kurdish genocide is a process which has lasted many decades. Halabja chemical bombardment lasted a few days and the Anfal three months. Iraq and the international community should regocnize the whole genocide process in Kurdistan. Halabja bombardment and Anfal are the most horrible parts of it. But there has been massacres in Halabja, in Karadaghi, in Barzan and in many other places since the 1960s. The people who have been murdered in them are also victims of genocide, not victims of "ordinary massacres".

What is the importance of recognition of Kurdish genocide in international arena?

I see that it is a necessary step in finding solution to the Kurdish question. Other genocides, like the one in Rwanda and Kamputcea, have been surveyd by local and international researchers. Only by making in-depht research the complexity of the genocide process can be understood. There is still danger of new genocides, especially in the disputed areas. To prevent them it is necessary to understand how the process developed little by little in other Kurdish areas.

What should Kurdistan regional government doing about Kurdish genocide (especially in international community).

KRG should establish a genocide research institute. Many reports have been made about Anfal and other genocidal acts. But there is need also for in-depth analysis about the Kurdish genocide. It should be done according international academic standards. KRG should study how the Armenians succeeded getting their genocide of 1915 regocnized by the international community. Their lobby in Washington, Paris and London is based on decades long support for the research about the Armenian genocide.

This is Kurdistan: Khanaqeen in pictures - 1

Here are some pictures from Khanaqeen, which I could not add to my previous posting because of some technical problems. I took these pictures in Khanaqeen during a quik visit in autumn 2009. I will put later to Samaran some of my pictures from Khanaqeen taken one year earlier.

This is Kurdistan: Khanaqeen - 1

I have noticed that Kurds from different parts of Kurdistan do not know much about other parts of Kurdistan. It is no wonder, Kurdistan is huge country, as large as France, and it is lacking national communication and education system to distribute information about the home country.

As I have been privileged to visit many parts in South Kurdistan I will share my experience by putting some pictures and information about various places. For further information, please look for other sources in internet. Wikipedia is good source to start.

Khanaqeen is one of the disputed areas in Iraqi Kurdistan. It is inhabited mainly by Kurds, but it is still ruled by Baghdad government, also by the Arabs.

In disputed areas there should be referendum: the inhabitants should vote whether they want to be part of Kurdistan autonomous area or the part of Iraqi federation which is ruled by the central government in Baghdad. This referendum is accepted by United Nations and it is Article 140 in the Iraqi constitution.

The referendum has been postponed several times due to the poor security situation. Terrorists continue the forced Arabization of Kurds from where Ba’ath party finished their activities.

Kurdistan is famous for its mountains but in the most southern parts of Kurdistan there are deserts and palms trees!

Khanaqeen is located by Sirwe river 20 kilometres south from the area controlled by Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). It is a boarder town to Iran. In addition of its date palms it is famous for various intelligence agencies acting there.

Khanaqeen is not the most southern town in Kurdistan. More south are for example Jalawla, Mandli and Badra (which is more southern than Baghdad).

I have visited Khanaqeen twice. I will put later pictures from Khanaqeen to Sahmaran. Unofortenately I can not do it today, there are some technical problems (which are common in the Iraqi internet).

How elections will go in Khanaqeen?

Flag of Kurdistan in Khanaqeen. I took the photo from a moving car.

I visited Khanaqeen in November 2009 and met governor Mohamed Mala Hasan and the director of PUK office Salah Gokak.

They said that the security situation in Khanaqeen and Diyala province is now much better than one year ago (however, there was in Khanaqeen a bomb explosion in the beginning of January 2010, two people died and 25 people injured.)

The location of Khanaqeen is strategically important: it is the boarder between Erbil (Kurdistan Regional Government, KRG), Baghdad (the Arab Iraq) and Tehran.

The boarder of Iran is about ten kilometres east from Khanaqeen. If the situation in Iraq in general becomes more unstable, there is danger that Iran uses the situation and supports terrorist activities in Diyala to create chaos in whole Iraq.

The capital of Diyala province is Baquba. KRG wants to send peshmergas to Baquba but the Baghdad government does not accept it. Kurds living every where in disputed areas hope there would be peshmergas. Disputed areas are the Kurdish areas of Mosul, Kirkuk and Diyala provinces.

Iran is eager to gain power in Baquba because it is the gate to control Baghdad and whole Iraq. Baquba is located 50 kilometres northeast of Bahgdad.

Kurdish security service Asayish has some offices in Diyala in the areas which are controlled by Baghdad government. Iraqi police forces do not make any cooperation with Asayish in Diyala (opposite than in Kirkuk, where Iraqi and Kurdish security forces cooperate in fight against terrorism). When Asayish and peshmergas catch suspected terrorists they handle them immediately to Americans. Even when it is peshmergas who arrest terrorists in disputed areas, Kurdish courts can not arrange their trials.

Kurdish authorities are worried that there will be problems during the Iraqi parliament elections in March 2010.

There are 8 000 Kurdish families in Khanaqeen who have not been able to register themselves as voters. These people have returned to Khanaqeen after being deported during Saddam's time. They are neither permitted to vote in their previous home towns.

It is half an hour journey from Kalar to Khanaqeen. There are people who travel every day from Khanaqeen to work in Kalar, or from Kalar to work in Khanaqeen.

Happy New Year to Kirkuk!

Happy New Year 2010 to readers of Sahmaran (if there is still somebody)! Sahmaran has been silent for a long time, sorry for that. I live in Kalar, and internet there is too slow to add any pictures to blog and even for text there seems to be all the time problems, for example lack of electricity. This post I write in Sulaymania.

Despite the recent frustrating news from Turkey, let's hope 2010 will be a better year (but there are really no signs that it would be so)!

These pictures are from my favourite town Kirkuk. I took the pictures in October 2009 from a moving car, the typical way to do photographing in Kirkuk.







Pictures: Kristiina Koivunen

Kirkuk, a multicultural city

Advertisement of a Turkmen festival held in Kirkuk in November 2008. Kirkuk Turkmen are not so similar to Turks than the Turkish state claims.

There was a massive suicide bomb attack in Kirkuk during Eid al-Adha, the 11th December 2008. Fifty people died.

News from Kirkuk in international mass media is always like this: big bomb explosion, small bomb explosion, attack, murder. There is no information about the every day life.

I visited Kirkuk five times during this year. In autumn 2008 I spent six days in Kirkuk province.

What did I see? People who try to keep the normal daily routines despite very heavy military presence. They wait desperately Article 140 to be put on action.

Despite its enormous oil resources, Kirkuk is a poor no one’s land: Baghdad government is controlling it but not developing its infrastructure, fearing that the city will fall to the hands of Kurds. KRG is doing some social and health programs there (for example Roz) but its share of the budget of Iraq is meant to the provinces of Dohuk, Erbil and Sulaymania, not to the Kurdish provinces outside the region.

Many people told me about the pre-Saddam Kirkuk. It was nice multicultural city with lots of tolerance and respect to other ethnic groups. Traditionally most inhabitants in Kirkuk are Kurds and Turkmen; most Arabs have arrived there recently (and are also victims of Saddam’s terror, they have been deported from the Delta area in South Iraq). Many Kurds and Turkmen speak both languages and mixed marriages are common.

People repeated that the problems and tension in Kirkuk are led from outside, Kirkuk residents want to have a peaceful life but there are too many foreign groups acting in Kirkuk.

I spoke also with many Turkmen. When they heard a foreigner speaking Turkish they started to pour their despair on me, how the world does not know what the Turkmen of Kirkuk want: peace. Turkman is different language than Turkish (which I cannot well), I did not understand much else from their speeches that they were desperate.

Since the Kurdish uprising 1991, Turkey has supported Jabhat Turkmen -party in Kirkuk to sabotage Kurdistan becoming independent with the oil resources of Kirkuk. Information and experience should have flown to the opposite direction: pre-Saddam Kirkuk was modern multicultural city where different ethnic groups have co-existed centuries in peace and harmony. The Turkish state is built on the false identity of mononationalism and Turks are afraid of multiculturalism. They should not be: the pre-Saddam Kirkuk was an example of this.

Turkish people should learn from the history of Kirkuk and use the experiences of peaceful co-existence for changing Turkey a similar place as Kirkuk was until the Baath party destroyed the atmosphere. But instead of learning something from others Turks wants to bring the repressing Turkish mentality to Kirkuk, and continue the destruction of both Kurds and Turkmen from where Saddam finished his job.

Kirkuk in pictures - 2

I have put to Sahmaran also earlier pictures from Kirkuk, here is some more of them:

The symbol of Kirkuk is fire. These flames - which can be seen when entering Kirkuk from Hewlêr direction - are very famous. But this is not Baba Gurgur, the eternal fire which has been burning four thousand years without a break. Remember that fire is the symbol of Kurdish culture. Maybe it all started here many thousands years ago.... In the battle about Kirkuk it is question of much more than oil.

Kirkuk Bazar is a walking street. Usually cars are not permitted to enter here.

Siniyu self (Turcoman: sini self) is very popular game in Kirkuk during ramazan. Men do not play it at other times.

Stadium where Saddam arranged parades to show his power. Pay attention especially to the Kurdish petrol station on the left. Six per cent of world’s known oil resources are in Kirkuk - but the petrol which is sold on the streets comes from Iran.

A view near Dubiz. Water comes here via a canal from Dohuk reservoir.

Pictures: Kristiina Koivunen

An uncommon view in Duzkhurmato

Taking pictures from a moving car is not easy. These views are quick snaps from car window in Duzkhurmato in October 2008.

Duzkhurmato is a small Kurdish town by the road from Kirkuk to Bagdad. It lies about 70 km south from Kirkuk.

All the traffic from Turkey to Bagdad goes via this road, there are many lorries. South from Kirkuk they drive only at daytime. There are many foreign lorries, most of them from Turkey. This one of the German low price super market Aldi was the most surprising one.

In places like Duzkhurmato tourists do not stop the car for photographing, you just take pictures from a moving car and maybe one picture out of ten is quite OK. For example this one is tolerable:
If you are lucky maybe your driver is decreasing the speech. I also learned that it is good to wash the car window. There is not much more to do for the sake of photographing in Kurdish countryside, which is under the Bagdad rule.

Television news show Iraq only as a battlefront and bombing field. However, the everyday life looks normal in many places. The high way restaurants near Duzkhurmato look quite the same than the ones in German Autobahns and the highway from London to Scotland. Unfortunately, I do not have better pictures.

Pictures: Kristiina Koivunen