Kurdistan is going through a transition period. It is post-dictatorship and post-genocide society. It has experienced rapid and violent change from rural way of living to urban settlements. In the 1980s people did not move voluntarily to towns. They were deported by Saddam’s soldiers. Since that many problems have followed each others.
KRG has difficult work to rebuild Kurdistan from ruins caused by Saddam’s dictatorship, several wars, international embargo and increasing tension with the Baghdad government. Problems are not yet over, one of biggest problems is the situation in the disputed areas.
When searching for a solution the first thing is to understand the problem in details.
In other countries universities are centers for research and education. Teachers follow the latest development in their field and distribute the information to their students. When students graduate they bring fresh information to their working places.
During the Ba’athist times universities in Iraq were opposite to this model. They educated staff for the government’s needs and followed Saddam’s rules. The little research what existed here was strictly under Saddam’s control.
Despite almost twenty years of autonomy KRG has not been able to create new research policy to replace the old model. All agree about the problems of the universities. There are reasons for them. International embargo isolated Iraqi universities and prevented the staff from getting fresh ideas. Another problem is huge brain drain. Many intellectuals escaped from Iraq during three decades and now their skills benefit Europe instead of their own country.
It is difficult to establish research policy from point zero but it is the only way to find long term solutions to the present problems. I give two examples: the situation of the youth and disagreements about the disputed areas.
In other countries there is youth research. Politicians make their decisions about education based on information.
Kurdish teenagers grow up in difficult conditions: their parents had experienced destruction of the villages. Their childhood was unsecure because of the civil war between the Kurdish parties. Present problems and lack of motivation for studies are reflections of this history.
KRG demands implementation of Article 140. It claims the Kurdish history of Kirkuk and other disputed areas. Yet there is no research about it done according international academic standards.
There is need for research about these two subjects and many other things. It is not question of employing some skillful researchers or establishing some projects. There is need for Kurdish research policy with a wide political agreement about its long perspective goals and priorities. It must have enough of funding. The work should start by establishing a committee where participants are both politicians and researchers.
This text has been published in Aso newspaper in Sulaymania the 8th February 2011.
Showing posts with label South Kurdistan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label South Kurdistan. Show all posts
Monday, April 4, 2011
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Foreign teachers view on Kurdish universities
I have worked almost two years as a university teacher in Kurdistan.
Kurds ask me how are universities in other countries. When I am in my native country Finland, people ask about the Kurdish universities.
Well. everything is totally different.
In Finland it is very difficult to get a study place. Young people work hard to get inside a university. Many teenagers study several years to succee in the entrance exam. When they start their studies, they take it seriously. Everybody makes Master's degree, with Bachelor's diploma one can not get work in Finland.
In Kurdistan it is the opposite. Young people see it as their right to go the university and get everything free of charge. Finnish students pay for everything: university fees, books, dormitory. They get a stipend from the government which covers about half of living costs. For the other half they borrow money from bank or work in the evenings. Rich parents give money to their children. But the general opinion is that parents are not responsible for children when they became 18 years old.
The Finnish students behave like adults and the Kurdish ones like children.
In Kurdish universities we start every lesson by checking from name lists which students are present. Exams must be arranged so that students can not look at each others' papers. In European universities there is no need for such control.
When I criticize Kurds I always emphasize that I do not want to blame the victim. People lack a sense of responsibility but there are reasons for that.
Sometimes when I get angry with my students I say to them that they behave like children in kindergarten.
"We did not have possibility to go to kindergarten when we were small, so we need such an experience now", one of them answered once.
I think that is the point. Teenagers, and even older generations, have grown up in war conditions. They did not get the feeling of basic security what children usually get in an early stage of their development.
Now KRG tries to compensate this lack to the student generation. But universities are not a healing system. The future of Kurdistan depends on how the new generations are educated. Is the system creative and encouraging young people to develop this country?
I visited recently Estland which got 1991 indepency when Soviet Union collapsed. In nineteen years Estonian people have created a high quality education system also according to the international standards.
I asked in an university how it was in the beginning.
"When we got independency, all people were happy and eager to develop our country. Teachers stayed in the universities until late evenings and they did not have any holidays in several years", one Estonian teacher told me.
I can not remember seing such an athmosphere even once in Kurdish universities.
++++
This text has been published in Asos newspapar in Sulaymania.
Kurds ask me how are universities in other countries. When I am in my native country Finland, people ask about the Kurdish universities.
Well. everything is totally different.
In Finland it is very difficult to get a study place. Young people work hard to get inside a university. Many teenagers study several years to succee in the entrance exam. When they start their studies, they take it seriously. Everybody makes Master's degree, with Bachelor's diploma one can not get work in Finland.
In Kurdistan it is the opposite. Young people see it as their right to go the university and get everything free of charge. Finnish students pay for everything: university fees, books, dormitory. They get a stipend from the government which covers about half of living costs. For the other half they borrow money from bank or work in the evenings. Rich parents give money to their children. But the general opinion is that parents are not responsible for children when they became 18 years old.
The Finnish students behave like adults and the Kurdish ones like children.
In Kurdish universities we start every lesson by checking from name lists which students are present. Exams must be arranged so that students can not look at each others' papers. In European universities there is no need for such control.
When I criticize Kurds I always emphasize that I do not want to blame the victim. People lack a sense of responsibility but there are reasons for that.
Sometimes when I get angry with my students I say to them that they behave like children in kindergarten.
"We did not have possibility to go to kindergarten when we were small, so we need such an experience now", one of them answered once.
I think that is the point. Teenagers, and even older generations, have grown up in war conditions. They did not get the feeling of basic security what children usually get in an early stage of their development.
Now KRG tries to compensate this lack to the student generation. But universities are not a healing system. The future of Kurdistan depends on how the new generations are educated. Is the system creative and encouraging young people to develop this country?
I visited recently Estland which got 1991 indepency when Soviet Union collapsed. In nineteen years Estonian people have created a high quality education system also according to the international standards.
I asked in an university how it was in the beginning.
"When we got independency, all people were happy and eager to develop our country. Teachers stayed in the universities until late evenings and they did not have any holidays in several years", one Estonian teacher told me.
I can not remember seing such an athmosphere even once in Kurdish universities.
++++
This text has been published in Asos newspapar in Sulaymania.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
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.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Iraqi Kurdistan is a post-genocidal society
Photo: Chamachamal the 13th April 2010.
In April Kurdistan was mourning the anniversary of the Anfal. There were ceremonies in many places, for example in Chamchamal and in Kalar. In these ceremonies and in mass media the symbol of the Anfal was pictures of Anfal widows, women in black clothes with a permanent sorrow on their face.
Their destiny is horrible. But when news about the Anfal are always visualised by pictures of Anfal families, it gives audience a false idea that the Anfal affected only those families who lost their members. A genocide affects the whole society for a very long time, for many generations. The pain of mother whose child disappeared is easy to see. But the wider effects of the Anfal are hidden. They have an impact on all Kurds. Kurdistan is a post-genocidal society.
182 000 Kurds were murdered in the Anfal campaign. Their destiny is a crime which must be surveyed in criminal investigations. Effects of the Anfal on the Kurdish society is another issue. Mass media shows the Anfal usually as the dissappearance of a huge amount of people but it is also other atrocities. Many villages were burnt in spring 1988. Villagers who survived the Anfal, were forced to leave their homes. They were deported to towns.
They are also victims of the Anfal. Their situation must be understood. I do not mean "that the KRG must help them" as people here in Kurdistan say about every problem. When Kurdish villages were destroyed, a huge amount of Kurdish culture and knowledge disappeared.
Until the end of 1980s Kurds were active producers. Kurdish villages were self-sufficient, they could produce everything by methods which had been passed from generation to generation for decades, maybe for centuries. Knowledge which was suitable especially to Kurdistan's conditions.
Autoritarian regimes want to make people passive and dependent of the state. Also the Baath regime behaved this way. When Saddam deported Kurds to central villages his target was to prevent Kurds producing their food themselves and make them dependent of the government.
The Ba'ath regime is gone, but Kurds have not become self-sufficient. They are dependent of another government, the KRG. Active producer society has turned into a passive consumer society and food is imported from abroad.
How to change the situation?
People demand help from KRG to every problem. But this way of thinking is not the solution, it is part of the problem. People must solve the problems by themselves, not wait that some one provides ready solutions.
I know this is huge task. And it is not the fault of Kurds that Baath regime destroyed their production systems and society.
There is need for wide perspective research about the effects of the Anfal, not only documentation of the atrocities. It is the only way to understand all effects of the Anfal. It is the first step in searching solutions to problems of a post-genocidal society.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Photos from Wezê
In my previous post I wrote how Iranian shelling destroys the Rawand culture in Kurdistan of Iraq. I put here some photos from Wezê village.
Villagers in Weze say that Iranians shells only agricultural areas. They don't dig here vegetables but pieces of Iranian rockets in their tomato field.
13 years old Basoz Jabhar Agha (who was murdered by the Iranian army the 30th May 2010) in the middle in the first line, in brown dress.
Basoz Jabhar Agha's sister shows a family album.
Aisha Abdullah continues to plant tomatoes two weeks after the death of her grand daughter Basoz Jabhar Agha.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Iranian shelling destroys the Rawand culture
Since 1991 Iran has been shelling Iraqi Kurdistan almost every spring. Shelling starts when farmers and Rawand people arrive to the mountains for agricultural work. The Rawand people are half nomads who spend winters in the plain lands and summers in the mountains.
On Sunday the 12th June 2010 I travelled to Wezê village near Choman to get information about the shelling of this year.
In this village thirteen years old Basoz Jahbar Agha was killed by Iranian rocket the 30th May. I met her grand mother Aisha Abdullah.
“At that day a group of teenager girls planted tomatoes on a mountain field. She had made a fire to prepare tea at 9.30 AM”, told Aisha Abdullah.
I met in Choman Kaymakan Abdul Wahid Gowani. He told that he meets often representatives of the Iranian state. Iranians say always that they shell PJAK guerrillas and enemies of Iran.
"How ever, they have killed only Kurdish civilians”, said Abdul Wahid Gowani.
“When we meet Iranians we say to them that this is high technology war fare. They have equipment to see everything on our side, so they are surely aware that PJAK is not here”, he said.
“Iranians shell only agriculture areas, not forests”, said the villagers. Their target is unarmed civilians, PJAK fighters do not wait Iranian army in day light in tomato fields.
“Here are no armed men. We have not seen in years armed guerrillas”, said the villagers.
”The target of Iran is not PJAK but destabilization of Kurdish region”, explained Abdul Wahid Gowani.
“Iran wants Kurds to be refuges in big cities. Shelling makes people afraid to come here, so they stop practising agriculture here,” said Abdul Wahid Gowani. He gave statics of the shelling during spring 2010: one girl died, one woman was injured, 25 sheep died and 237 families left their homes or did not return to mountains from the plain lands as they have done earlier.
The villagers in Wezê told that many men are afraid to come there, it is mainly women and children who remain in these mountain villages.
“The amount of shepherds decreases every year”, told Abdul Wahid Gowani. About one hundred Rawand families leave the job every year because they are afraid to go to the mountains despite they like them very much.
“ Iran wants to destroy by shelling the culture of the Rawand people”, claimed Abdul Wahid Gowani and continued: “The Rawand culture is not only Kurdish heritage, it is international heritage. Their culture and way of living is ancient, only few people are able to live like this.”
Kurdistan has been for decades target for various types of genocides. Saddam destroyed in Iraqi Kurdistan almost all villages. Iran is now destroying those villages which survived the Ba'ath government period. The destruction of traditional Kurdish way of living by Iranian bombings is one method of cultural and economical genocide. The target is to destroy the Rawand culture which is original Kurdish way of living. And Iran wants to empty villages near its boarder and to create so called security zone as decided in Algiers Accord 1975.
Because of the Iranian shellings the ancient Rawand culture is in danger to disappear completely. We may not let this happen. For the survival of their culture there is need to make research about the effects of the shellings. Also the Rawand way of living must be surveyed. Rawand people need support which benefits their survival as a group. I think the best way is to let them to practise their original livelihood and provide market for their products.
But the first thing is that Iran must stop immediately the shelling the Rawand people and other civilians.
Sulaymanian newspaper Aso published this text the 20th June 2010.
Information in Kurdish here:
http://www.dengeazad.com/NewsDetailN.aspx?id=4920&LinkID=137
On Sunday the 12th June 2010 I travelled to Wezê village near Choman to get information about the shelling of this year.
In this village thirteen years old Basoz Jahbar Agha was killed by Iranian rocket the 30th May. I met her grand mother Aisha Abdullah.
“At that day a group of teenager girls planted tomatoes on a mountain field. She had made a fire to prepare tea at 9.30 AM”, told Aisha Abdullah.
I met in Choman Kaymakan Abdul Wahid Gowani. He told that he meets often representatives of the Iranian state. Iranians say always that they shell PJAK guerrillas and enemies of Iran.
"How ever, they have killed only Kurdish civilians”, said Abdul Wahid Gowani.
“When we meet Iranians we say to them that this is high technology war fare. They have equipment to see everything on our side, so they are surely aware that PJAK is not here”, he said.
“Iranians shell only agriculture areas, not forests”, said the villagers. Their target is unarmed civilians, PJAK fighters do not wait Iranian army in day light in tomato fields.
“Here are no armed men. We have not seen in years armed guerrillas”, said the villagers.
”The target of Iran is not PJAK but destabilization of Kurdish region”, explained Abdul Wahid Gowani.
“Iran wants Kurds to be refuges in big cities. Shelling makes people afraid to come here, so they stop practising agriculture here,” said Abdul Wahid Gowani. He gave statics of the shelling during spring 2010: one girl died, one woman was injured, 25 sheep died and 237 families left their homes or did not return to mountains from the plain lands as they have done earlier.
The villagers in Wezê told that many men are afraid to come there, it is mainly women and children who remain in these mountain villages.
“The amount of shepherds decreases every year”, told Abdul Wahid Gowani. About one hundred Rawand families leave the job every year because they are afraid to go to the mountains despite they like them very much.
“ Iran wants to destroy by shelling the culture of the Rawand people”, claimed Abdul Wahid Gowani and continued: “The Rawand culture is not only Kurdish heritage, it is international heritage. Their culture and way of living is ancient, only few people are able to live like this.”
Kurdistan has been for decades target for various types of genocides. Saddam destroyed in Iraqi Kurdistan almost all villages. Iran is now destroying those villages which survived the Ba'ath government period. The destruction of traditional Kurdish way of living by Iranian bombings is one method of cultural and economical genocide. The target is to destroy the Rawand culture which is original Kurdish way of living. And Iran wants to empty villages near its boarder and to create so called security zone as decided in Algiers Accord 1975.
Because of the Iranian shellings the ancient Rawand culture is in danger to disappear completely. We may not let this happen. For the survival of their culture there is need to make research about the effects of the shellings. Also the Rawand way of living must be surveyed. Rawand people need support which benefits their survival as a group. I think the best way is to let them to practise their original livelihood and provide market for their products.
But the first thing is that Iran must stop immediately the shelling the Rawand people and other civilians.
Sulaymanian newspaper Aso published this text the 20th June 2010.
Information in Kurdish here:
http://www.dengeazad.com/NewsDetailN.aspx?id=4920&LinkID=137
Saturday, June 5, 2010
This is Kurdistan: Qaradagh
I have been again silent for too long time, sorry for that. I have been very busy with the final exams of my students, but they will be over next week.
Here are some views from Qaradagh. It is a mountain area about half an hour journey from Sulaymnia, in the south of the town. The Turkish name (”Dark Mountains”) is a memory of the Ottoman times.
This is the area where PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) started at the end of 1970s armed struggle against Saddam Hussein after Mullah Mustafa Barzani had given up his struggle 1975 because of Algiers Accord.
Nowadays Qaradagh is a popular picknick resort.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Anfal funeral in Chamchamal
106 Anfal victims were buried in their home region Chamchamal in South Kurdistan on Tuesday the 13th April 2010. Prime minister Dr Barham Salih and former prime minister Nechirvan Barzani attended the funeral.
Ba'ath party and Saddam Hussein committed Anfal, the Kurdish genocide in spring 1988. The amount of victims is 182 000. There is more information about it in Sahmaran blog under titles "Anfal"; "Genocide" and "Human Rights of dead people".
Photos: Kristiina Koivunen
Saturday, April 10, 2010
This is Kurdistan: Picnic in Qaradagh
Spring is the season for picnics in Kurdistan. Especially in South Kurdistan people really love them. On Fridays cities and towns are empty when people go to the mountains.
I was on picnic in Qaradagh (south from Sulaymania) at the beginning of April. We grilled fish.
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Kurdish genocide is more than the Anfal
This text was published in Aso newspaper the 4th April 2010. Aso is the biggest newspaper in Kurdistan, it is published in Sulaymania.
The anniversary of the Anfal is soon. When Kurds speak about the Kurdish genocide they usually mean the Anfal. But it is only the peak of the genocide process, which is much bigger than the Anfal.
Ottoman Kurdistan was divided between Iraq, Turkey and Syria after the First World War. The process which led to the Anfal started in Lausanne in 1923. Arabs and Turks started to assimilate Kurds by all means. But Kurds resisted in many small revolutions. Usually historians speak about them as local uprisings without seeing the context. The uprisings were not separate incidents.
Arabization of Kurds started with milder forms like making education in Arabic language. But Kurds refused to give up their identity and they have defended it since those days. So oppression methods became harder.
Television programs and newspaper articles about the Anfal show horrible pictures of dead bodies and skeletons. This gives audience an image that genocide is same than killing. It is that but it is also other things.
There are many forms of genocide and various methods to make it. The aim of the perpetrators is to force the target group to change its identity. Cultural and linguistic genocides are methods for this. If Kurds forget their language, after some generations they will be Arabs. There is no need to kill them.
Well, Kurds have refused to forget their culture and identity. So the oppressors took harder methods. Local uprisings were ended brutally. The aim of brutalities was not to kill all of them but teach a lesson: you must accept to become Arabs! In the 1970s and 1980s Kurds still refused to do it. Men were fighting as peshmergas and women folk assisted them. All methods to change Kurds into Arabs had turned out to be in vain. So Ba'ath party decided to move to the final stage of the genocide process, the total annihilation of Kurds. The Anfal started.
The Iraqi Parliament has accepted the Anfal as genocide. It is a good start for the international recognition of the Anfal. It is important that especially the Arab World would understand that genocide happened in Iraq in 1988.
The Kurds themselves should understand whole the horrible process which their land has gone through during 87 years. It is necessary for the sake of understanding and solving the present problems.
The victims of massacres before the Anfal and victims of deportations and purposefully caused starvation are also victims of genocide. The amount of the victims of the Kurdish genocide is much more than 182 000 people. No one knows how many. Many Kurdish generations were suffering last century.
For the victims, of course, it does not matter what is the cause of their death. But for the survivors it is important to understand what really happened. They live in a post-genocide society. And the future generations need to know what atrocities happened to their ancestors.
The anniversary of the Anfal is soon. When Kurds speak about the Kurdish genocide they usually mean the Anfal. But it is only the peak of the genocide process, which is much bigger than the Anfal.
Ottoman Kurdistan was divided between Iraq, Turkey and Syria after the First World War. The process which led to the Anfal started in Lausanne in 1923. Arabs and Turks started to assimilate Kurds by all means. But Kurds resisted in many small revolutions. Usually historians speak about them as local uprisings without seeing the context. The uprisings were not separate incidents.
Arabization of Kurds started with milder forms like making education in Arabic language. But Kurds refused to give up their identity and they have defended it since those days. So oppression methods became harder.
Television programs and newspaper articles about the Anfal show horrible pictures of dead bodies and skeletons. This gives audience an image that genocide is same than killing. It is that but it is also other things.
There are many forms of genocide and various methods to make it. The aim of the perpetrators is to force the target group to change its identity. Cultural and linguistic genocides are methods for this. If Kurds forget their language, after some generations they will be Arabs. There is no need to kill them.
Well, Kurds have refused to forget their culture and identity. So the oppressors took harder methods. Local uprisings were ended brutally. The aim of brutalities was not to kill all of them but teach a lesson: you must accept to become Arabs! In the 1970s and 1980s Kurds still refused to do it. Men were fighting as peshmergas and women folk assisted them. All methods to change Kurds into Arabs had turned out to be in vain. So Ba'ath party decided to move to the final stage of the genocide process, the total annihilation of Kurds. The Anfal started.
The Iraqi Parliament has accepted the Anfal as genocide. It is a good start for the international recognition of the Anfal. It is important that especially the Arab World would understand that genocide happened in Iraq in 1988.
The Kurds themselves should understand whole the horrible process which their land has gone through during 87 years. It is necessary for the sake of understanding and solving the present problems.
The victims of massacres before the Anfal and victims of deportations and purposefully caused starvation are also victims of genocide. The amount of the victims of the Kurdish genocide is much more than 182 000 people. No one knows how many. Many Kurdish generations were suffering last century.
For the victims, of course, it does not matter what is the cause of their death. But for the survivors it is important to understand what really happened. They live in a post-genocide society. And the future generations need to know what atrocities happened to their ancestors.
Monday, March 29, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Newroz 2010 in Sulaymania
Newroz is over. Unfortenately my pictures are late (but better late than never?)
Here in Sulaymania the main event during Newroz was big meeting in Sulaymania down town on 20th March evening where the main street had been turned to a walking street.
It was so different like the newroz days which I have spent in Turkey! It was more like the new year eve in Helsinki. Actually this is a good comparison. Newroz is Kurdish new year. It is not a political celebration any more as this country is liberated from Saddam's rule. New year is neither in Finland a political day, people celebrate the coming year, not demand their rights.
I hope also in Turkey Kurds can soon celebrate Newroz in this normal way!
Saturday, February 13, 2010
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.
Monday, February 8, 2010
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).
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).
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Road from Kalar to Sulaymania
Here are pictures from the road from Kalar to Sulaymania. I took the pictures from the bus window the 21st January 2010.
Beautiful, isn’t it? It has been raining for some days, and when the sun shines, the mountains are green as the grass grows immediately. Like in March.
Yes, it is beautiful. But in January it should not look like in March. Some days after taking these pictures it became very cold.
The mountains are grand, I get never tired on looking at this landscape!
Derbandikhan
Derbandikhan
Rain started in New Halabja.
Sulaymania
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Television programme about Kurdish genocide
Kurdistan TV will send a programme about Anfal and Kurdish genocide this week. I am one of the persons interviewed in the program.
Program times:
Part 1:
Tuesday the 19th January 2010 at 7.15 PM
and second programming Wednesday the 20th January 2010 at 10 AM
Part 2:
Wednesday the 20th January 2010 at 7.15 PM
and second programming Thursday the 21st January 2010 at 10 AM
Program times:
Part 1:
Tuesday the 19th January 2010 at 7.15 PM
and second programming Wednesday the 20th January 2010 at 10 AM
Part 2:
Wednesday the 20th January 2010 at 7.15 PM
and second programming Thursday the 21st January 2010 at 10 AM
Saturday, January 16, 2010
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.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
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
Monday, October 5, 2009
Back in Kurdistan and Kalar
I returned to Kurdistan at the end of September. I live now in Kalar and work in the university (Sulaimani University, College of Education, Kalar).
Kalar is most southern town in Iraqi Kurdistan controlled by KRG. Kalar lies about 150 km south from Sulaymania and 40 km north to Khanaqeen. The distance to Baghdad is about 200 km.
Kalar is the center of Guermian. Historically it is part of Kirkuk province. The Ba'ath rgime put Kalar to Diyala province, as part of the Kurdish genocide process. It was an act of statistical genocide: the boarders of provinces were changed to increase the proportion of Arabs in the population. The boarder of the areas controlled by KRG and the Baghdad government lies only a few kilometres from here. On the other side is one of the disputed areas, where people desperatively wait the Referendum as described in Article 140 to be put on action.
I did not write any blogs during the summer, but now I will do my best to keep the readers of Sahmaran informed about the life in Kalar and Guermian. I try to put also pictures if I have access to a good internet connection. Here in Kalar its capacity does not seem to be enough to add pictures here.
Kalar is most southern town in Iraqi Kurdistan controlled by KRG. Kalar lies about 150 km south from Sulaymania and 40 km north to Khanaqeen. The distance to Baghdad is about 200 km.
Kalar is the center of Guermian. Historically it is part of Kirkuk province. The Ba'ath rgime put Kalar to Diyala province, as part of the Kurdish genocide process. It was an act of statistical genocide: the boarders of provinces were changed to increase the proportion of Arabs in the population. The boarder of the areas controlled by KRG and the Baghdad government lies only a few kilometres from here. On the other side is one of the disputed areas, where people desperatively wait the Referendum as described in Article 140 to be put on action.
I did not write any blogs during the summer, but now I will do my best to keep the readers of Sahmaran informed about the life in Kalar and Guermian. I try to put also pictures if I have access to a good internet connection. Here in Kalar its capacity does not seem to be enough to add pictures here.
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