Roj Bash !

So the explosion that we dread occurred at last but did not have significant consequences. I think it could have been more serious. The Kurds who raised the big flag that Turkmens (Turks) seized were becoming very angry! And as Turkmens were too already angry to see a Kurdish flag passed aboe their heads, the time bomb fatally exploded. There were blows from both sides. A policeman was near to our group, the French ones. I saw that he hesitated to intervener. Guessing that the fight could become general, he called immediately reinforcements. So our group spontaneously decided to move away the scene because we feared that if a lot of policemen arrive in reinforcement, some of us would be arrested, and we had to take our bus 30 minutes later !
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Then this cockfight between Kurds and Turkmens ?

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After everyone had finished to vote, we gathered and decided to visit the town of Utrecht by small groups. We agreed to come back to “Centraal Station” at 2h30 pm.

Some took then public transport, others, more courageous, walked until the town center. It is really a beautiful city and people are very friendly and smiling. And how Dutch women are tall !!
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“Our driver thus wentto park his bus in the carpark which was reserved to him and where he slept during hours! Indeed he deserved it, it is very tiring to drive by night.

We moved towards the office of vote.There was almost there, only Arab Shiites, 6 or 7 persones maximum. They stuck small posters for the 555 list, I believe. They greeted us. On somewalls, there were posters of the Allawi List (731). But no poster for the Kurdish list and no Kurdish in the place, except us.
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Roj Bash blog has collected the narration of a brave Kurdish elector, gone from Southern France to vote in Holland… We publish it as and when we receive the parts of the tale… We hope pictures soonly, too !

“I was not aware of this trip in Holland. Knowing that we could not vote in France, we had envisaged to got to Belgium with a car. But a Kurdish friend from Paris called me by phone sunday or last monday and informed me that there will be a bus for those who want to vote in Nederlands. I learned in the same time that Belgium did not organize the elections. As the bus was free, I did not hesitate one moment !
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“It is not conceivable to imagine a conflict where the Kurdish people would be the opposing party.”

“Concerning the Kurds, the Kurdish people, they should be persuaded… that we are concerned of their future as much as themselves, concerned of their future, their safety, and their stability, concerned that they could take part in the construction of the Iraqi society.”

Georges Bush ? Al Jaffari ? A sunni leader convinced of Arab-Kurds brotherhood ?

No, only Saddam Husein, in 1973, during the debate about the project of the Authonomy Law for Kurdistan… before the process failed because of Kirkuk issue.

That is perhaps the reason why Kurds should be always defiant when other nations pretend to care of their future…

The Kurdish Referendum Movement (a referendum for an independant Kurdistan) does not seem to be liked by the Kurdish Democratic Party… Amnesty International has started a campaign concerning the lawyer Kamal Sayid Qadir, “rapted” according the NGO in Hewlêr, by KDP forces.
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Thirsday 1er December in the French Parliament, an International Conference was organized about “Kurdish Question in Syria”. Until nowadays, a lot of conferences had been organized concerning the Kurdish Question in the Middle-East. But these conferences were essentially focused on the 2 biggest pieces of the Kurdish Question : Kurds in Turkey and in Iraq. As far as I know, it was the first time that a such debate was only devoted to these 2 millions Kurds living in Syria, which, in spite of their few number (if we compare them with their compatriots from neighboured states), are concerned by two specific political issues : The general fate of Kurds in the Middle-East, and the situation and problems of which face only Kurds in Syria.
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Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government has for a long time now, been using very many different motives for their stamps. All marked with “Iraqi Kurdistan Region”. But a special set of stamps, among all those beautiful designs, caught my attention. In this set – we see Kurdish clothes on men and women:

It is easy to see that the stamps, for one, are old – but besides this – the clothes are those of the Badîn Province of South Kurdistan – and make up a part of the Kurmancî style of clothings, Kiras û Fîstan.

But what is more interesting than the set of purely Kurdish clothes, is the set of Kurdistani clothes on men and women:

Here we see, from left to right:

Kurmancî style, Êzidî style, Feîlî/Shebek style – all part of Kurdish clothing styles and last but not least on the far right hand we see clothings in Ashûrî style. All these are part of the Kurdistani culture.

I was very amused and even happy to see this set of stamps. Likewise I hope it amuses you and spreads the message which the KRG for so long has been trying to send – there is UNITY among Kurdistanîs – they are all part of a Kurdistani culture. Diversity is rarely as celebrated as it is in Kurdistan. For thousands of years there has been a sense of co-existence in Kurdistan among Kurds and Assyrians.

May it last for thousands more…

Hathra, 80 km in the South-west of Mosul

These pictures are not gore not so violent, but if you are very very sensitive, warning…

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