Why do we always choose to burn when we want to resolve a conflict?

In this part of the world, fire seems to be the only means for resolving any sort of dispute. Women set fire to their own bodies to end disputes with their families. Media offices are set on fire to silence them. Liquor stores and massage parlors are burnt to put an end to whatever some people don't seem to like. And political party offices are burnt if they are accused of whatsoever that is not to the liking of the powerful parties.

I just don't get it. Why do we, Kurds, are always ready to choose to burn when we want to resolve a conflict? Could this be an intrinsic characteristic of the Kurdish man who consciously chooses to not choose the peaceful dialogue as a tool of resolving disputes? May be holding discussions and dialogues does not conform to the Kurdish man's masculinity and thus hurts his pride?

Almost all conflicts can easily be avoided and resolved no matter how big they are. Th torching of the liquor stores and political party offices in Zakho earlier this week needs to be seriously taken into account in order to prevent future re-occurrence.

A few dozen people should have never attacked beverage stores and massage parlors and torch them. This is really dangerous for the Kurdish region that has been able over the past two decades to establish some sort of order, though not perfect. I do not want to talk about personal freedoms, for now, we all agree that one is free to drink alcohol and that Christians and Yazidis are entitled under Iraqi law to have liquor shops - just put that aside. Let's talk about it from a different point of view. If those people who torched the liquor stores and massage centers really were angry about the existence of those places in the town and wanted to send a message to the authorities to do something about them there were several peaceful ways they could have used such as writing a memo to the authorities and requesting, for instance, the moving of those places to other places away from civilian populations and central town. Or they could have campaigned for their cause by having a petition signed by as many as people and then sending this to the authorities, or even they could stage a demonstration where they could call on the authorities to find ways to reconcile the liquor stores and the angry people. All these are characteristics of a democracy.

On the other hand, it should have never been allowed for a few dozen people, whether or not fans of, or encouraged by, a certain political party, to torch Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU) offices and accuse it of being behind the attacks. Why do we have courts and the security forces, then, if we just judge everything on our own without letting the security forces to investigate the incidents and without letting the courts to do their jobs?

If a political party was really responsible for the violence, it should have been investigated and the facts should have been shown to people supported by evidence and then let the courts decide what their fate would be. But the Kurdish desire for fire just did not let this happen.

I am really astonished. How can we so easily torch, in a moment of outrage, all that has been built in years? How can we torch such headquarters, offices, and other public places like liquor stores, all of which paint a colorful image of democracy?

The real question now is: Where is the rule of law in Kurdistan that the authorities always talk about? What are the security forces paid for, to stand idle and watch on as a bunch of rioters set fire to liquor stores and party offices? In fact, why can people so easily set fire to public property? And what will be the next step of the authorities? Will they enforce law or will try to silence the issue in behind curtains agreements?

Raber Y. Aziz

US military leave behind hot market for Iraqis

Kirkuk, Nov. 7 (AKnews) – US equipment and stuff, that US military get rid of as they are preparing to withdraw from the country by the end of this year, have created a hot market for the people of Kirkuk and the neighboring provinces.

Such equipment include US-made air conditioners, heaters, washing machines, refrigerators, dryers, lighting equipment, radios, television and so on. "And people love buying these equipment because US-made stuff are good quality and strong" says one tradesman.

"These stuff are especially popular among people because there are so many Chinese stuff in the market which are of poor quality" says the man – declining to be named for security reasons. He says they get the stuff from the main US base in Kirkuk – which used to be Kirkuk's airport before 2003 – Tikrit and Mosul cities.

The man, coming from Mosul, also put on the show his US-made vacuum cleaners, satellite receivers – and bodybuilding tutorial CDs. "Kirkuk is an excellent market" he says.

He turned to the new business after his old one three years ago came to an end. "Three years ago, I was selling M16 rifle magazines, bullet-proof vests, helmets and modern communications equipment and military knives and compasses" which would be smuggled out of Mosul and Ramadi through interpreters working with the US military "with help from some [US] soldiers"

Abu Afnan is a customer; he has found what he was looking for in the market here: in Kirkuk: An electrical heater that consumes little electricity but gives the desired heat.

"This is a chance for us here to buy these stuffs because we are in dire need of them" he says. But there is another motivation for buying the stuffeagerly: after the US forces withdrawal these equipment will no longer be in the market.

"The US make is excellent and everybody want it in contrast with the Chinese, Iranian or Turkish made goods" he said showing his dislike for the current goods in the Iraqi market which are "ether non-originals or poor quality commercial stuff"

Iraqi tradesmen either get the equipment and stuff from the US bases, after the dump them in desert areas, through a mediator for very low prices or they for free, according to Bestun Dalawi, another one engaged in the business.

Dalawi has been working in the business since 2003 and his income so far "is very good and I have been able to buy a house and a modern car."

"This has become the source of my living" he says. But he is now concerned about his future as the US forces have only until the end of the year in Iraq according to a security deal signed between Washington and Baghdad.

"We may have one more year in this business. After that, we will have to think about another business" Dalawi says.

Abdullah al-Janabi, another tradesman, is different from the rest of the people engaged in the business – he has specialized in recovering cosmetics and beauty stuff from those bases and selling them in Kirkuk's used stuff markets.

"My stuff sell very fast. They are originals and include some of the top world brands. Women love these" al-Janabi says.

Al-Janabi used to sell grocery before he took up the new business. Now he is thinking of going back to the old job when the US forces withdraw from Iraq.

The US military has handed over recently some 400 military bases to the Iraqi forces as they prepare to withdraw from Iraq by the end of this year. They usually get rid of the stuff that hey do not want to move back to the US considering the costs of transportation.

The US military maintain only 11 bases throughout Iraq currently, according to Hussein al-Asadi – an Iraqi government representative during the handover of the military bases to the Iraqi forces. And these bases are expected to be handed over to the Iraqi forces in mid-December.

Reported by Abdullah al-Amiri, Edited by Raber Y. Aziz (AKnews)

Remains of Kurds killed under Sadddam to be returned to Kurdistan

Erbil, Sept. 7 - The remains of hundreds of Kurds killed under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein are expected to be returned to Kurdistan Region in the coming days, says Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) minister of Anfal and Martyrs Affairs.

The remains of the 479 victims were found in mass graves in Diwaniyah province, 180 south of Baghdad, who were killed during the Anfal Operations in the 1980s by the Iraqi army.

"The excavation of all the mass graves in Diwaniyah have been finished. Tomorrow, we will start preparations for returning them to their home town for proper burial" Aram Ahmed told AKnews.

The victims were all from the Qadir Karam town, 60 km south east of Kirkuk. The oil-rich province of Kirkuk was subjected to an Arabization policy implemented by Saddam Hussein's regime where mainly local Kurds replaced by Arabs resettled from central and southern Iraq.

Anwar Omar, director of the mass graves at the ministry fo Anfal and martyrs affairs told AKnews that the remains of the Kurds found in Mahari 1 and Mahari 2 of the Diwaniyah mass graves were all Kurds killed during the 1988 phase of the Anfarl campaign.

Anfal, or Anfal Operations was a  series of military operations that began in 1986 and lasted until 1989, and was headed by Ali Hassan al-Majid. The Anfal campaign included the use of ground offensives, aerial bombing, systematic destruction of settlements, mass deportation, firing squads, and chemical warfare, which earned al-Majid the nickname of "Chemical Ali".

Anfal, officially conducted between February 23 and September 6, 1988, would have eight stages. Thousands of civilians were killed during the campaigns that stretched from the spring of 1987 through to the fall of 1988.

The attacks were part of a long-standing campaign that destroyed approximately 4,500 Kurdish villages in areas of northern Iraq and displaced at least a million of the country's estimated 3.5 million Kurds.

The Supreme Criminal Court of Iraq which was set up after the 2003 US led war against Iraq to try former members of Saddam Hussein's government, has recognized mass killings of Kurds by the former regime as genocide. This includes the chemical attack on the Kurdish city of Halabja in 1988 which killed 5,000 and left some 10,000 inured, as part of a military campaign known as Anfal. 

According to the Iraqi prosecutors, as many as 182,000 Kurds were killed including women, aged, and children.

reported by Rebin Hasan, Edited by Raber Y. Aziz (raber.younis@gmail.com)

Kurdish refugee forced to choose between voluntary and forced deportation by Swedish authorities

Erbil, August 21  – A Kurdish refugee in Sweden who has been living for eight months under the threat of being forcefully deported to Baghdad has finally been warned to either go home voluntarily or face being handed over to the police who are authorized to treat him the way they wish to force him get on board on a plane bound to Baghdad later this month.

He is a 21-year-old Kurdish refugee from Koya city, east of Erbil – the Iraqi Kurdistan capital – who left Kurdistan in 2009 in quest of a new life in Europe. He is now living a life of uncertainty and hardship in Karlskrona after his asylum claim was rejected by the Swedish authorities. 

Awara says he is the "victim of a deal between the Iraqi government and some European countries, including Sweden, to forcefully deport Iraqi refugees, in particular Kurds, to Baghdad"

Awara is not the only person to allude to an alleged behind-the-curtains deal in which the Iraqi government will receive the deported refugees at Baghdad airport without protest in return for its debts to the countries concerned. The existence of such a deal however has been refuted by the Swedish authorities.
                                                                                                
When he left Kurdistan, Awara had dreams of making an easy living in Europe and helping his family back at home. He left because he felt there was "injustice" in Kurdistan. 

"I left because of the political and social injustice in Kurdistan… I had two older brothers who  had graduated from college and yet had failed to find a job in the public sector," Awara said. He was only 16 when he dropped out of school thinking it of no use to study in a region where college graduates remain unemployed. 

"I thought to myself, what is the use of studying when I know that there is no future. So I dropped out with the hope of doing some work instead of studying – which was a waste of time for me," he said.

Awara decided to migrate to Europe when he was 19 and was encouraged by the idyllic stories he heard from friends and others of the life people lived in Europe with plenty of opportunities for employment and far away from social injustices.

Another source of encouragement was the plethora of people smugglers who told positive tales of life in Europe and how easy it is to get there and be granted asylum.

He embarked on his journey to Europe in 2009. First, he entered Turkey and from there entered Greece. "I stayed in Greece for about one and a half years. Later, I crossed into Italy where I slept for two months on the streets because I had nowhere to go," he said.

Awara then had to cross France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany before finally making it to Sweden. During his long journey, Awara experienced all kinds of suffering and hardships; sleeping on the streets, sometimes hungry and cold; walking for days and the ubiquitous racist abuse.

He said Europeans in general - including the Swedes - refer to Kurds and people from the Middle East as "black heads" and look down on them.

"For instance, if you board a train and a Swedish woman sees you, she will try to hide her bags as if you are a thief and will look at you with disdain. To be quite honest, Europe is not the paradise it seems to be."

With a sigh, Awara said that "If I really knew this was the reality of Europe, I would never have come here."

Yet he had to put up with all that, because he had hopes for life there and his family in Kurdistan had high hopes for him. He hid from the eyes of the authorities for a while in fear of being captured and deported to Iraq.

But his patience had its limits and living in hiding was not the kind of life he had dreamed of, so he turned himself in to the authorities hoping they would grant him asylum, or at least let him stay without fears of being chased and deported.

He turned himself in to the police in November 2011 but the court rejected his claim and all his dreams evaporated.

"Now the authorities have told me that if I sign a document that attests I will voluntarily leave Sweden for Iraq they will give me US$5,000, however, if refuse to sign it, they will hand me over to the police to treat me the way they want and force me by any means to board the plane to Iraq."

"They have given me until August 26 to make up my mind," he said.

Awara spoke of his misery after everything he's been through to carve out a new life for himself.

 "I am about to go crazy as I see all my dreams, my sufferings, all the money I spent and the dangers I faced on the trip were in vain."

When he left Kurdistan, Awara had hoped that a better destiny than that of his two brothers lay ahead.

The last thing on his mind was that all his dreams would prove to be in vain and that he would wake up to a reality no less  bitter than that he was running from in Kurdistan.

"I spent eight months on the trip from Kurdistan to get to Sweden, I suffered a lot and spent about $20,000," Awara said, "and now they want to end everything in four hours," referring to the flight from Sweden to Baghdad.

"I don't know what I am returning to in Kurdistan, I have nothing there, there is no life for me there."

By Raber Y. Aziz (raber.younis@gmail.com)

Syria for PKK: the US-Turkish deal in the region

Turkish fighter planes have started to bombard northern Iraqi Kurdistan Region since Wednesday. So far, they have strike over 250 targets in the mountainous region of Qandil Mountain, Avashin, Khwakurk and Zap and other territories.

The latest Turkish strike in Sangasar sub-district, north west of Sulaimaniyiah city, left at least six civilians dead who were so charred dismembered by the rocket fire that they couldn't even be identified.

All this is happening amid silence of the Iraqi government and their Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan have only "protested" against the attacks that have displaced hundreds of families and damaged villages by releasing a statement calling on the Kurdish separatist group, namely the PJAK and PKK, to not use Kurdish territories to stage cross border attacks against the neighboring countries.

The KRG and the Iraqi government are too weak to be able to sound a firm attitude towards the Turkish attacks on Kurdish territories. And the international community is also turning a blind eye.

Some believe that these attacks by the Turkish military on alleged PKK hideouts in northern Iraq were part of Erdogan's promises in the elections. I believe that Turkey always wanted to attack the northern Iraq, but the US was hindering its designs. And these attacks came only after the US gave Turkey the green light to do so, but this is part of a deal between the countries: Syria for PKK.

Turkey was understood as trying to convince Syrian authorities to do reforms because it did not want its long-standing ally to fall - that could open the borders open to Kurdish separatist groups to infiltrate into Turkey. Turkey also opposed US plans to impose more sanctions against Syria.

On August 18, as US president Barack Obama called on the Syrian president Bashar al-Asad to step down accusing him of "torture and slaughter" against his own people, the Turkish planes bombed targets in northern territories of Kurdistan Region.

The same day, Obama ordered to freeze Syrian government assets in the United States, banned U.S. citizens from operating in or investing in Syria and prohibited U.S. imports of Syrian oil products.

What is going on here is a US-Turkish deal whereby the US will allow the Turkish forces to stage air strikes against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, in return, Turkey will not oppose US sanctions on Syria and its efforts to bring the Asad regime down.