The Other Iraq: Exploring Iraqi Kurdistan.
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Iraqi Kurdistan is a far cry from the common stereotypical images of Iraq that have most often made news headlines in the past few years. Whether one is walk¬ing around the market in an urban area, or driving through deserted mountain roads, there is a profound sense of peace and serenity that characterizes both the land¬scape and its people. It is for this reason that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) uses the moniker ‘‘the other Iraq’’ in its promotional literature to encourage investment and tourism. While its peaceful climate, coupled with its oil reserves, has made it a desirable location for invest¬ment, one can nonetheless travel for an entire week without encountering another Western traveler. What makes Kurdistan so unique will be the focus of this article. With the high death tolls amongst Ira¬qis (citizens and militants alike) and U.S. soldiers and contractors, it may come as a shock to hear of the relative tranquility of the northern part of Iraq (Figure 1). To help understand this seeming contradiction, it is useful to adopt a critical geographic per¬spective (Agnew 2003) to address this com¬plexity rather than view nation-states as containers that erase all differences within their borders. As such, Iraqi Kurdistan is a prime example of this tremendous regional variability one finds within states. Ever since the establishment of the no-fly zone in northern Iraq following the first Gulf War in 1991, Iraqi Kurdistan has secured ever greater autonomy and, thus, has been shielded from most of the violence that has been associated with Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. A cursory examination of a variety of travel forums, guidebooks, and even Iraqi Kurdistan’s own tourist website all emphasize the region’s safety for travel¬ers. Statistics back up the research as well; not one coalition soldier has been killed, nor has any foreigner been harmed or kid¬napped, since the March 2003 US invasion of Iraq; the most significant incident of vio¬lence were two suicide bomb attacks on one particular day in 2004. Before focusing exclusively on Iraq, an overview of the Kurdish people is war¬ranted. Estimates suggest there are between 20–30 million people who would likely identify themselves as Kurdish, making them the largest stateless group in the world. Like the Roma, the Kurdish people are often referred to as a ‘‘nation without a state,’’ an ‘‘invisible nation,’’ or ‘‘people without a country’’ (Chaliand 1993; Lawrence 2008). The Kurdish dias¬pora has sizeable communities in numer¬ous countries such as the United States, Germany, Russia, Israel, Georgia, and Canada. However, the majority of Kurds are located primarily in Turkey, Iraq, Iran, and Syria, and historically this region has been referred to as Kurdistan. Nonetheless, it is important to be cognizant of the vast diversity among the Kurdish people. Liv¬ing for generations in different states and societies has certainly created differences within this ethnic category (Natali 2005). Regardless of the extent to which some Kurds may identify with a Kurdish national identity, different loyalties and goals have long divided Kurds (Vali 1998; Macmillan 2002). Linguistic, religious, regional, and kin-based divisions have challenged attempts at Kurdish unity throughout the centuries.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | 2012 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Jimenez, Jeremy |
|---|---|
| Author | Kabachnik, Peter |
Subjects
| Subject | Iraq |
|---|---|
| Subject | Kurdistan |
| Subject | Diversity in Kurdistan |
| Subject | Overview of Kurdistan |
| Genre | Article |
Bibliographic information
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- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC BY).
Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- Jimenez, J., and Kabachnik, P. (2012). The Other Iraq: Exploring Iraqi Kurdistan. Focus on Geography, 31.
Collection
Graduate School of Education Open Archive
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- ximenez@stanford.edu
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