You get a sense of the precarious existence of the Kurds of Northern Iraq when you cross the ‘border’. There is no fence just a few guards hovering outside a tin hut. They do not stamp your passport because this is not an official border.
‘Kurdistan’ as the inhabitants of this slither of land call their home, has no recognition or status in international law. But protected by the US-British no-fly zone, the Kurds have, over the last ten years, carved out a vibrant, functioning mini-state in the hills and mountains of Northern Iraq.
Three and a half million people live here and they have a sense of freedom that few others in Iraq or the wider Middle-East enjoy – for instance there are a plethora of newspapers and many are openly critical of the Government, something which would not be tolerated in many other parts of the region, let alone to the South.
But the Kurds are all too conscious of their insecurity. Saddam’s Baghdad lies only 3 hours drive from the city of Sulemaniya and Iraqi tanks and troops look down on Kurdish towns like Chamshamal from their hilltop positions.
In the town of Halabja, they remember the day 15 years ago when Iraqi planes came overhead and dropped chemical weapons on the town killing thousand, one man showed me the bunker in which he hid and then emerged from to find most of his relatives dead. They also remember how the west – for whom Saddam was then an ally against Iran – said nothing at the time. They also remember that the first President George Bush called on the Iraqi people to rise up against Saddam after the last Gulf War but then failed to support them when they did, leading to a humanitarian disaster as the Kurds fled in fear.
The Kurds have not always made their own lives easier. Two different Kurdish factions have often been at each other’s throats and now live in two largely independent zones in the North. But the prospect of removing Saddam has brought them together. In the centre of Sulemaniya, a bullet-ridden compound which used to be known as the ‘red security building’ is now a museum to commemorate the genocide and violence that Saddam Hussein inflicted on the local population when he was in control. Meat hooks hang from the ceiling from which Kurds were hung and beaten.
The Kurds have prospered in their isolation, and many do fear the changes war will bring. But still most do support regime change in Baghdad – they know that real security for them will only come when Saddam is gone and there is a new, representative government in Baghdad.
On every border the Kurds are surrounded by countries that are deeply suspicious of their aspirations for nation-hood, fearing that such a move by Iraqi Kurds could trigger similar demands from their own Kurdish minorities. Many now fear that Turkish troops will come into Northern Iraq during the war to quash any dreams of independence.
Caught in the vortex of international politics and impending war, the Kurds are waiting to see whether or not the ‘liberation’ of Iraq will leave them free.