A Culture Displaced
Jun 1, 2009
Above: Bootlegged DVD's for sale in Erbil, Iraq. DVDs are sold for between $0.80 and $1.50 and new releases are usually available within days.
Time is already flying by, but so far I am on schedule. I only spent a night in Istanbul and a day in Diyarbakir on the way out here, because I new that getting all the permissions in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG) would take some time, but I already have my work permit, residency visa, and a meeting with a local mayor for tomorrow!
"Almost everyone that you talk to [in Kurdistan] has been displaced at some point in their lives."
Yesterday, I met with Mr. Abdulsalam Abdulla, the Public Relations Officer for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (not to be confused with Mr. Salam Abdullah in Sulaimaniyah). He was incredibly helpful, as always, and set me up with a work permit that authorizes me to work as a journalist within the KRG.
We had a two hour long conversation (much to my cab driver's chagrin) that was very informative and eye opening. Mr Abdulla pointed out that almost everyone I meet in Kurdistan has been displaced at some point during there lives. His eyes started to tear up a little when he confessed that he himself has had to pick up and move five or six times in his life - leaving everything he owned and knew behind.
Hearing this from him really hit me, because it made the situation much more real. Mr. Abdulla is a very well educated man, now with an important position within his party, and yet, even he has been displaced several times throughout his life at the hands of others. I had no idea that it was such a widespread issue that has effected so many people over the decades.
We talked a lot about the current situation for Kurds throughout Turkey, Iraq, Syria, and Iran and what he hopes to see as a future for the Kurdish people. Relations still remain tense between many of the governments involved, however, it does seem like progress and headway is slowly being made - in some regions more clearly than others.
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1 Comment
Glad to hear that everthing is going well. Keep it up. Gotta see you when I back in Diyarbakir. God bless..
Regards,
Mehmet
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