- Title: IRAQ: Syrian Kurds in Iraq long for statehood
- Date: 6th November 2012
- Summary: YOUNG MAN GETTING OUT OF TENT
- Embargoed: 21st November 2012 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Iraq
- Country: Iraq
- Topics: International Relations,Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA5XJ0FJ50DKR8LJQVGHXQAMLLN
- Story Text: Kurdish flags fly on top of tents at a refugee camp in Iraqi Kurdistan, where thousands of Syrian Kurds who have fled war at home are relishing the freedom to flaunt their identity like never before.
Long-oppressed, Syria's Kurds see the conflict ravaging their country as an opportunity to win the kind of liberty enjoyed by their ethnic kin in neighbouring Iraq, who live autonomously from the federal capital in Baghdad.
The war between forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and rebel fighters has so far driven some 30,000 Syrian Kurds over the border to Camp Domiz, where breeze-blocks are gradually replacing canvas as residents hunker down for winter and beyond.
A further 200-300 people are arriving each day, according to international disaster relief charity ShelterBox, which is helping put up tents.
Despite being displaced, many of the camp's occupants draw comfort from being in a country where they can at least speak their own language and fly the Kurdish flag without fear of reprisal.
"Even if we didn't have bread and water we'd be at ease here because we're at home with our leader Massoud Barzani. Dirt turns to gold in his hands," said Naja Hussein Omar, praising the leader of Iraqi Kurdistan, whose image hangs on walls around the camp.
"We want an independent state like any other."
Divided between Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Iran, the Kurdish people number more than 20 million and are often described as the world's largest ethnic group without a state.
In Syria they make up about 10 percent of the population -- the country's largest ethnic minority.
"God willing we will get another Kurdistan in Syria, and God willing in Turkey as well. We the Kurdish people are not afraid," said Ibrahim Abdulaziz Ali, who fled his hometown of Hassakeh several months ago after being drafted into the army.
Despite complaints about power cuts, a shortage of clean water, and unpaved roads that are reduced to sludge when it rains, many say they will stay in Kurdistan and never return to Syria.
Paralysed from the neck down, Nouri Rangeen lies on a bed in a breeze-block at the camp, yearning for a homeland that does not yet exist.
Six years ago, whilst serving in the Syrian army, he was struck down by an officer who heard him speak in Kurdish and fell, breaking his spine.
His sister is now looking after him.
"I will stay here, but if my brother has the chance to go to any country for treatment he will go and then returns back because he does not want to live abroad (Q: Why does he want to stay here) He likes Kurdistan. (Q: Why) If I tell you that is all because of the nationality, you will not believe me. My father asked me to bring back a bag of soil (from Iraqi Kurdistan) so he can use it as a pillow," said Rangin's sister, sitting at his bedside If Assad falls, the Kurdish quest for self-rule is unlikely to be smooth.
Already, tensions between two main Syrian Kurdish groups, the Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the Democratic Union Party (PYD), have at times threatened to slide into intra-Kurdish conflict.
Earlier this year, Barzani brought them together in Arbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, where they signed a pact to form a joint council, presenting a united front for Kurdish interests in Syria.
"There is no difference between this party and that, we are one," said 52-year-old Abdel Jalil Mohammed Hussein, one of seven men sitting around the edge of a room thick with cigarette smoke.
But the KNC has repeatedly accused the PYD of failing to hold up its side of the bargain, saying its People's Defence Units (YPG) militia continue to set up checkpoints and impose their agenda by force.
About 100 men at the camp recently protested against the kidnapping of a member of the Syrian KDP's politburo, who was recently snatched off a street by the PYD, they say.
The KNC was forged from more than a dozen smaller Syrian Kurdish parties, with Barzani's blessing, and is broadly accepted by the political mainstream, unlike the PYD, which is seen as tied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK.
The PYD says it has nothing more than ideological affinity with the PKK, which has fought a 28-year separatist conflict in Turkey that has claimed more than 40,000 lives. But Syrian Kurds at the camp use the two acronyms interchangeably.
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