Cilantro, basil, rosemary...

   
... and mint. Those who know me may wonder why someone with a black thumb is posting pictures of plants. (And by the way, I am really pleased that these have not died on me yet. Knock on wood.) It's that I miss food flavored with fresh herbs. The only fresh herb available in markets in Erbil is dill... although I think there are some rosemary bushes lining the walkway to the front gate of the fake Sheraton. And of course, lots of people have mint growing in their gardens. Anyway, if any of you think of things to add to my herb garden that are idiot proof, please send seeds.

What time is it, Mr. Wolf?

Party Time? Who knew that such services were available here? Not only did this nice man discount my choice of birthday gifts by 2000 dinar, but he threw in complimentary wrapping!
And above is the unwrapped present, although it was primarily not the birthday boy, but 2 other kids from another apartment block who were interested. Anyway, the party was nice; the kids played Musical chairs, Musical statues and What time is it Mr. Wolf? Following that, the adults engaged in adult type fun - a double bill movie night: Ice Age I and II!

kidnapping, corruption and illegal imprisonment: investors beware

On Thursday night, Haber Turk reporter interviewed Mr. R, owner/engineer of a construction company, for a TV slot sometime next week when the crew returns to Turkey. The last thing a businessman from Turkey wants to do is alert the Turkish media to problems in Kurdistan, a move which could harm future investments made by Turkish companies and strain relations between the informant and those government officials and business people facilitating his/her work in Kurdistan (a rapidly developing place with many more large project opportunities than Turkey). So why has Mr. R decided to talk? Local media has encouraged him to do so as a kind of life insurance. Sound overly dramatic? To me too, but apparently the occurrence of people disappearing in car accidents, although no longer common, is still a possiblity... especially when the people crossed are rich and powerful.

After over a year of difficulty (stemming from a construction project which Mr. R's company completed, but was not paid for), he started a law suit against his employers (which we will call M Co.). His employers laughed and said (translation into English), "What kind of game do you think you are playing? We OWN Kurdistan! We can buy anyone." These threats turned out not to be false claims. The first scary incident was when the court engineers went to survey the site. Mr. R was kidnapped during the visit of the court engineers and taken to an office belonging to M Co. while they bribed the engineers to under-represent the work done. At that time, an employee of M Co. tried to take away Mr. R's camera containing photos of the site. Fortunately the camera had already been sent off-site with another engineer.

A few months later, in November 2007, Mr. R was arrested on false charges and put in a jail in Sulemaniya where he stayed for 3 weeks. During that time, it was discovered that his lawyer had been bought by the other side and had been hiding out in Germany while all scheduled court cases continued without the awareness of Mr. R and with the non-attendance of Mr. R's lawyer, a lawyer who despite having complaints filed against him at the Association of lawyers - he had been accused of fraud and other such legal infractions before - is again giving seminars and practicing law in Erbil. A new lawyer was found and since then, Mr. R has won every court case. However, this doesn't mean the worries are over. Although the court cases were all decided in Mr. R's favor, still no movement to pay the debt has been made. Hence Mr. R contacted government officials to urge them to enforce the court's decision, all of whom were supportive of his claims. But now, it appears there are new players on the field. It has surfaced that yet another politician is involved... and has been involved all along with the corruption being perpetrated by M Co. This has caused the other politicians (those supportive of enforcing the court decisions) to back off. Perhaps the weak system of government can't support fractions between politicians in the same or opposing parties? I don't really know, but am curious to see what will happen after the Turkish media has been alerted.

Please note that there is another side to this story. In Kurdistan, there exists not only those small companies that can't defend themselves here in the absence of enforced policies and laws, but also those in on the corruption - big companies using bribery to get the plumb contracts and then charging high fees for shoddy materials and workmanship... or just taking the money and running with the job left unfinished.

Parking Ticket

Dr. F seemed amazed by the sight of this police officer writing a parking ticket on a side road in Ainkawa. When I asked him was he found so interesting, he responded that it seemed strange that in a region with no enforced traffic laws (other than, Don't try to cross city checkpoints with bombs on board), that the police bother to write parking tickets. I wonder how many of the ticketed parties actually pay? Those who have to renew their license in the same city that the offense was committed?

Brokeback...

Kurdistan? I originally wanted to label this post Kurdish Cowboys when I realized that only one of the handsome guys in this line-up is Kurdish; there is also an Arab and a Turcoman cowboy! It is simple things that would be so ordinary back home, like the friendship between guys of different ethnicities, that make me feel more hopeful/less cynical regarding the future of this institution and the region.... especially as the students here are cherry-picked to eventually take their places as ministers, policy-makers and other governmental big wigs.

These three were in my office two days ago to discuss/hand-in final research projects. I hope the cowboy hats (believe it or not, I have heard it is a burgeoning fashion here) are NOT indicative of sentiments that favor cowboy diplomacy as a method of conflict resolution. I know that at least one of these guys is a risk-taker, but I am hoping none of their essays demonstrate the overly-simple, dichotomous world view favored by other cowboys active in the political arena here...

Culture Club

No this isn't a post about Boy George (if you are old enough to know who he is), but about the Chaldean Youth Center in Ainkawa. Another of Tiziana's photos. I am posting them all as she left today and I am most distressed. Anyway, I like this photo because it shows a kind of casual 'normalcy' I don't find in many public places in Erbil. Tiziana says that there are many of this sort of club where young people gather attached to churches in towns in Italy. On May 6th, when we went on our tour of the churches of Ainkawa, it was easy for us to explore the churches thanks to Tiziana. At one church where the guard didn't really want to let us in, despite pleas from our Chaldean guides, he reversed his decision when her heard she was from Italy. After all, she comes with a recommendation from the Pope!

Picnic Wear

Another picnic season has already passed (the temperatures are rising) and I again didn't manage to get my Kurdish dress made. If I am here for another Nawruz, I will be sure to order early. I want bronze sequins on mine.

Visitor's View of Hawler

All photos below by Tiziana:
The citadel in Erbil
A shop in Kayseri
A shoe shine stand on the street in Bazaari Sirwan
A happy pickle salesman

with students...

...at the university...
Tiziana (in red shirt) enjoyed meeting the students and engaging them on topics including Kurdish independence, their trust of the media and other primarily political topics.

MRTSHMONY SHRINE - May 6th, 2008

Above is a picture (by Tiziana) of the Mrtshmony Shrine in Ainkawa. After a walking tour (Tuesday last week), we ended up at the Mrtshmony Shrine. As luck turned out, May 6th was the day when all the Chaldeans travel to the shrine to pay homage to a woman who suffered for her faith under a tyrannical king who killed her 7 children in front of her before killing her. While we were there, the number of people kept multiplying exponentially, many of whom were distributing sweets to all gathered outside the shrine. Wonderful luck really to experience this. Although I entered the shrine, I could not image how to translate Mrtshmony into English and couldn't recall this story. If anyone knows more, please let me know.

Shaklawa... Finally

I had forgotten how long the trip from Lalish to Erbil is if you take the round-about road via Akre. Well, we stopped in Akre only to use the facillities and continued on our way down an impossibly small and bumpy, but paved road winding its way around the mountians. After about 3 hours, we reached Shaklawa.... finally! We didn't do much there other than watch Kurdsat News and have a late lunch. After lunch we went to buy honey and walnuts. The pictures below are of some locals we met on the way back to the vehicle.

We made friends with these gentlement while trying to photograph the birds flying to the nests perched in every nestable spot overhead.

doorway details...

... and more peacocks!

Tawsi Melek Sanjak

I took the top photo of a clearly recent painting of an Indian sari-clad lady with a sanjak, a bronze image of the sacred peacock. I believe it is used for the parade of the peacocks on the Yezidi New Year, but as I mentioned, I have never made it to a festival and can't elaborate.
I will however try asking Ezster (who sent the bottom photo of the sanjak of Shekhan).

Lalish Revisited

Tiziana was slightly suspicious that I might be Yezidi as we traversed below the temple to the sacred river of Zimzim to drink and wash. But it just isn't true. The truth is I find Lalish to be a mysterious and magical place. This time as there were only two of us, we were able to explore at leisure. We wandered through the little paths to all the little buildings, all of which are part of this temple complex. I was told it is quite busy during the festivals although I haven't yet managed to time my trip to catch one.

The above photo is of a road leading to the highest point of the mountain/hill overlooking the temple. The white areas house alcoves with more spaces to light the oil lamps at night.
(Above photo by Tiziana) These women were coming down as we were going up. They eyed our shoes suspiciously, but our guide had told us we could put them back on after leaving the temple.
And after wandering, we stopped for tea at the house of the family on the left: the Faqirs. Apparently, two families live at Lalish; the Faqirs and the Babachawish. My guide this time was an English-speaking man from the Faqir family with a desire to speak better English and study at our university (His first degree was completed at the University of Mosul).

Anyway, he tried to explain to me about the families and castes of the Yezidi society, but it was somewhat confusing. Of course there are plenty of websites to illustrate this more clearly, but it seems that the Mir (descended from Tawsi Melek) is the spiritual leader and under him are the Sheikhs (descended from 6 of the 7 great angels), the Pirs (descended from Sheikh Adi -in one of the tombs at Lalish) and the Murids (majority of Yezidis). I guess my new friend is a Pir?

Baa Baa

If you have ever been to the Textile Museum at the top of the Citadel in Erbil, you have likely seen the nomadic tent on the rooftop. But have you ever seen the real thing? I don't know why, but I sort of thought it was a thing of the past until this past weekend. I saw one when exiting the environs of Amedi and these other two in Shekhan near Lalish.

Sheep, goats and a donkey... You don't know how much these animals make me happy. It gives me opportunity to use the first words I learned in Kurdish (on a road trip to Sulemaniyah): mar, bizen, ker... Good thing sheep don't lunch on laundry.
And these sheep are ones spotted from the bus from Amedi. Unfortunately I missed catching the shepherds with my lens, but they were wearing Arab headdresses (kefiya, agal and all) and some rode donkeys. More bedouin?

Amedi

The last stop on last weekend's trip was Amedi. Like the reliefs at Halamata, the history of this city goes back 3000 years. I would really like to share with you pictures and stories of the Assyrian ruins located there... I think there are ruins of a citadel, a synagogue, a church, a Koran school and a very old gate. I don't really know because the kids were tired and hungry and we couldn't find a place to have tea! I guess this means I will have to take another trip to Amedi so that I can explore at more leisure.
After not finding a chaikhana, we left Amedi (which is build on a kind of natural citadel) to find a restaurant. At the restaurant, we asked someone to point out the gate. If you look at the rocks in the photo above, you will see a hole in the rocks. This is the gate I plan to visit next time.
And this final photo shows a friendly woman from Zakho who allowed us to take her picture. After taking the photo, her brother (also wearing traditional clothing) pointed out the gate to us in perfect English. It turns out he was visiting family in Kurdistan, but actually lives in London, Ontario!

Saddam's Palace

On the way to Amedi, our driver got a little lost. After backtracking a few times, Tf confirmed that we were on the right path as he recognized a wall and a road leading up to one of Saddam's former palaces. Our driver was loathe to go, but curiosity got the better of us and we climbed the hill. This first picture is of Tiziana with a view of Zawita (?) in the background. I am not really sure where we are because there are a couple of destroyed palaces in the region; both somewhere near Amedi. The one below is the one NOT on the top of a mountain that had to be accessed by helicopter. The other pictures are various views of the palace itself. What a beautiful setting and how horrible for the Kurds living below this place.





Is it possible this is the palace in this article that was blown up while the media watched as a political gesture?

Dream City

On Friday night, after our trip to Halamata, Tiziana (who was visiting from Istanbul) and I went to Dream City. No, it is not an expensive half-finished apartment complex where the contractors ran off with the money. That is the "Dream City" in Erbil. This one was an amusement park in Dohuk. Dr. D, Dr. F and their respective families love Dohuk for Dream city, Mazzi Mall (a mega-supermarket containing a whole range of items not available in Erbil) and the Lebanese restaurant in Dilshad Palace Hotel. For me, Dohuk was attractive for its cooler weather.

I post this picture because only last week on Al Jazeera, a journalist in Basra delivered his report from a park in Basra in front of group of young people enjoying bumper cars. It was the first time in ages that people felt safe enough to congregate in a public place just for fun.

Halamata

I found a picture of an Assyrian bas relief in a kind of travel guide/hotel brochure I bought in a hotel in Sulemaniyah. Intrigued, I asked many people where this might be found, but nobody knew... My Kurdish friends could only read the Kurdish introduction and tell me that it was called Halamata and that it was dated at about 704 BC. I searched for Halamata online, but only found two sites which told me that it is near Dohuk (about 20 minutes actually). So this last weekend, I went to Dohuk to find that Halamata is located halfway up a mountain!

The above photo is of the peshmerga's hut on top of the mountain. We stopped here and one of the peshmerga came with us to help us locate the site.
Above is the other peshmerga watching us start the descent.
I include this photo only because I was rather taken with the wild poppies and the view of Dohuk from above.
Finally, we found Halamata! There were three sections each containing about 9 figures; 8 facing left, and one at the front who appeared to be receiving them... a king receiving the Gods? One of those internet source suggested that it might have been sculpted to commemorate a military triumph. The above photo is from the center segment.
A closer view of the right segment of the relief (this one taken by Tiziana). Here you can see that the gods (do the starred disks above their heads indicated that they are gods?) are standing on the backs of animals that appear to be part horse, part lion and I am not sure, but they might be winged. That source further suggested that the gods might include; Adad (a storm god - although I saw none holding a lightning bolt nor an axe), Ashur (god of war- holds an arrow), Enlil (god of the sky), Ishtar (queen of the night? goddess of love and war?), Sun and more...

Anyway, it is shame that someone had defaced some of the work with blue spray paint. One entire image in the left segment was painted blue. Why is it that people here are so uninterested? Is it because historic places not so interesting as potential picnic sites or modern buildings? Is it because these images are not Kurdish in origin? Anyway, I really wish that Mosul wasn't so dangerous as I want to see more; the Assyrian palaces in Ninevah for starters!

For Eszter

This is in lieu of an email reply to the comment you left on my post electricity. First of all, let me thank you for your comments on Lalish. It was hard to write about the significance of some of the things I saw there as our group didn't know very much about the Yezidis before going. It took me a long time to try to sift through lots of conflicting information (even information from my local friends was conflicting) and decide what to post. Any photos or additional information you would like to send would be much appreciated (meezane@gmail.com).

Glad you liked my photos of Turkey. I hope to go back again soon, but maybe Urfa, Harran and Gaziantep next time. And of course there is the whole west coast still to be discovered. I find Turkey to be stunning, be it the cityscape of Istanbul, the fairy chimneys of Capadoccia, or the villages, the volcanic rock fields and ruins in East Anatolia. of course there are wonderful places here too... but too many of them are not safe to visit or I simply haven't made it there yet as travel is not as convenient as in Turkey. I am sure you know better than me. I hope to travel to Dohuk, Amedi and Halamata Cave next weekend. Perhaps you have advice?

Anyway, I will try to post more about university life here in Kurdistan. As you mention, the difficulty is the need to be careful. Perhaps after I leave?

Best, Zanmei

May Day at the Deutscher Hof

After a long period of NOt going to the DH, not being willing to shell out for exorbitantly priced weinersnitzel, or something which is nothing like what I thought bratwurst was like, I have started going again. Maybe everyone is in better spirits now that the dust storms are less frequent and the sun is out... or maybe because the beer really is the only good beer in Erbil, not being familiar brands (like Heineken, Grolsch or Budweiser) produced in unfamiliar places... or fake spirits imported from China.

In the evening, before International Workers' Day, a Maypole was brought out, but there was no dancing around it, or scaling of the pole... Instead people drank ridiculously huge draft beers or beer from little boots...

Or hammered nails into stumps. Who knew this was a competitive sport? Sorry to report that all the pictures of Gunter hammering nails in his lederhosen are too dark.

And on May 1st, we returned for lunch! In fact, the meals were surprisingly OK. But better than that was really just the chance to sit in the garden under a big umbrella amongst the garden gnomes (not pictured)...

And listen to the budgies and love birds twitter.




All photos by Corinne

Bakery & More

Photo by Corinne

The days of begging visitors to smuggle blocks of parmesan in their suitcases is over! What you can't see in this photo is the glass case filled with salami and ham varieties (all Halal beef, but convincing in taste), gruyere, parmesan, mozarella, and other cheeses! There is yet another bigger case of millefeuille, strawberry tarts, cream puffs, eclairs, mousse desserts... and, best of all, a counter stacked with breads; including baguettes, hedgehog-shaped loafs made from unbleached flour, lebanese flat bread and a variety of others, some enticing with an aroma of savory herbs.
Upstairs is a restaurant where I will likely be lunching a lot in the future. Now if only these new places that have started to spring up in Erbil would bring in proper coffee machines and good espresso.

If you haven't been yet, tell the taxi to take you to Sky City. It is directly across the street.

Beer with Bahman Gohbadi

Photo by Corinne

On Wednesday last week, Bahman Ghobadi appeared in the auditorium of our university to show both a clip showing the making of his film Half Moon and the film itself. In between the two he talked about the film. The portion of the program preceding the film, which is not available yet in Kurdistan (only a lousy pirated copy of Turtles Can Fly can be purchased in the bazaar), took about one and a half hours during which hardly a word of English was spoken. Holding this event in Kurdistan in Kurdish, where the speaking of Kurdish is NOT forbidden, is clearly an event to be celebrated! However, there were Assyrians, Chaldeans, Arabs (and Kurds returning for Arabic-speaking regions) and a whole host of foreigners, almost none of whom speak Kurdish fluently.... and barely a word of English was spoken. Again, you may wonder why this is upsetting? The university where the event was held is an ENGLISH-medium university... and hence all those non-Kurdish-speaking people in the audience (and dare I say, those most familiar with Bahman Ghobadi's work?) were denied from hearing his message.

I asked one of the students sitting near me, a lovely girl (but one whose whisper is louder than the microphone-amplified voices of those speaking on the stage), to translate the first of the audience questions. The question was, "Why are all your films shot in Iran and not Dohuk or Sulemania?" I wanted to die. What a waste of time. The one film which is available here, Turtles Can Fly, is entirely filmed in and near Hawler - which (as we know) is NOT in Iran. During all of this, a member of the student council, and one with excellent English, sat smugly on stage... doing nothing but arrange his Kurdish clothes and smile at the TV cameras. I questioned him afterwards as to why he made no real effort to translate, but he merely said, "What? Did you expect me to translate into 4 languages? Everyone here speaks Kurdish." Although the languages of the students at the university indeed do total 4 or more languages, the unifying one is English. If not, why would they elect to come to an English-medium university? Our nationalistic friend who likely should be studying at a Kurdish-medium university (what does one so total inward-looking a person need with a degree accredited from the outside anyway?) further added, "Anyway, Bahman Ghobadi doesn't speak English and there was no time for translation."

Well, my anger at this has now dissipated as I received my chance to hear Bahman Ghobadi speak after all. I ran into him at the Deutscher Hof in Ainkawa this past Wednesday night (after a full week of ranting). He was accompanied by a female Kurdish singer from Turkey, a Kurdish director from Kurdistan (Iraqi) and a man who produced and distributes some of Hiner Saleem's movies- movies which he will try to bring me this June when he returns to Kurdistan. Bahman Ghobadi was surprisingly friendly and down-to-earth and best of all, we were able to chat without the aid of a translator since he spoke marvelous English!

Please watch for follow-ups to this story as we exchanged email addresses and I am hoping for answers to some of the questions I wish were asked at the filming at the University.