Iraq: Moving Forward

We have the honor of speaking as part of a powerful upcoming symposium, Iraq: Moving Forward held by Institute for Global Leadership (IGL) at Tufts University in partnership with the Project on Justice in Times of Transition. This will be a first in a series of speaking engagements we have in the next couple of months. We would be honored to have any of our readers attend.

On February 13th, I will lead a Brown Bag Lunch Discussion Group at the Jebsen Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies. On Saturday, March 3, I will sit on a panel titled "States of Ambiguity: Rebellion and Recognition" as part of the IGL's symposium on Global Crises: Governance and Intervention.

We will post from the conference and hopefully will have our multimedia presentation live on-line in the next couple of weeks.

Concluding thoughts (2 flights down, 2 to go)

Greeting from Ataturk International Airport, our latest layover destination en route home. The last day has given us a chance to begin digesting all the information we acquired and to begin to filter our thoughts. One way I like to describe the knowledge acquisition process is repeated efforts to chisel away at rough clay until a shape of some coherence reveals itself. I must admit that at the moment coherence is only beginning to emerge. In some areas of the research I find myself more confused than ever. One thing is certain for me at the onset: the case of Iraqi Kurdistan will undoubtedly disappoint both the postmodern globalization enthusiasts as well as the skeptics.

It is neither a miracle story of new forms of sovereignty nor an obvious example of why states will continue to rule in the future. Iraqi Kurdistan - like all the regions we’ve examined in this and other parts of the world - is a riveting story, though one that does not lend itself to simple categorizations and labels. This can be frustrating for a thesis, in the sense that it will be difficult to offer coherent causalities or particularly strong arguments. However, the time in Iraqi Kurdistan has allowed us to tease out some of the important themes that often are missed by external analysts. Had we relied on media reports alone, for example, we would never have been able to identify the underbelly of the economic and political development of Iraqi Kurdistan. We could not have gotten a sense of the cultural impulses, societal tensions, nor the precarious road ahead.

As Matt stated eloquently before, nothing is exceptional in international relations (not even exceptionalism itself). I could not agree more - the Kurds, like all people, are able to rise in times of great challenge as well as disappoint in times of enormous opportunity. The story of Iraqi Kurdistan is compelling if only because in the presence of such commonalities we must also understand the dynamics of its contextual development. The intricacies of the regional and domestic context require a committed long-term effort to disentangle. We are both tremendously appreciative and humbled that our mentors and friends supported us in our efforts explore this road.

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Matt’s writing now. I was going to wax poetic, but Matan has summed it up better than I could, so I’ll be short (cue Dawson’s Creek theme song here). The trip was about as successful as we could have dreamed at its onset, and the warmth and friendliness shown to us by our hosts was truly fantastic. Clearly, without the support of our respective educational institutions, this trip would not have been possible. The same goes for our new friends in Iraqi Kurdistan.
I like Matan’s chisel metaphor, especially in concert with another metaphor once told to me by Prof. Michael M.J. Fischer. Consider the subject a giant, hidden mosaic. With everything one reads, and every person one speaks with, and with every theory one applies, a tile is added. The problem is, the mosaic is much too large to ever be finished; at the same time, it’s constantly expanding and changing.

In the next few weeks, we hope to give you a glimpse of what we think the mosaic for Iraqi Kurdistan looks like--including web-based multimedia pieces with audio and photograph slideshows.

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The objective of the blog was simply to offer the opportunity - to those who had the interest - to follow our happenings. We apologize for any incoherence, run-on sentences, misspellings, and the like. These entries were often written late into the night or in haste between engagements. It was comforting to know that some of you - even if it was just our parents - were with us along the road, even if it was electronic and prone to frequent black-outs. Cheers and Godspeed!!

Matan and Matt

A day with the Peshmerga

Always carry a calendar of Britney Spears with you... for example, we've tried to go on patrol with the peshmerga since we've arrived. Finally, today, our package of incentives paid off. Mid-morning while we were walking through the market we got a call from Mulazem (Officer) Luqman informing us that he is sending two cars to get us. We sped back to our humble motel where we found a host of peshmerga waiting for us... this served to only confuse the management further as to what our purpose here is.

The city of Erbil is surrounded by a 92 KM trench that is 3 meters deep and wide. This focuses all incoming traffic to the city towards five checkpoints. The Kurdish Regional Government had this trench dug one year and a half ago to avoid infiltration by insurgents from the Sunni Triangle and Kirkuk. Luqman and his forces drove us south to the Kirkuk checkpoint and we drove along the trench.



There are 4-5 peshmerga manning the trench every kilometer along the way. These forces lack regular uniforms, common equipment, or any of the sophisticated technology most border forces take for granted. For example, there is not a single pair of night-vision goggles in any of the checkpoints along the trench.



Nonetheless, the security situation here is very impressive. Many of the security experts we spoke with here suggest that the key to this success has been the cooperation of the population which simply will not provide a sanctuary to radical Islamists. The Asayish, or internal security, has true intelligence dominance. One method used to secure the region is that each family from the south of Iraq that wants to visit or move to Kurdistan has to be sponsored by an individual, family, company, or the like from the Kurdish region. If you are not from here people can sense it immediately - certainly, if you do not speak Kurdish well you stick out like a sore thumb. The coalition forces lack this kind of familiarity with territory in the rest of the country - the results speak for themselves.



In the afternoon we had a fantastic and most informative meeting with the Minister of Finance and Economy, Sarkis Aghajan Mamando. There is only scant (and mostly unreliable) economic indicator figures for the period we are studying. Nonetheless, Kag Sarkis had some fascinating insights and figures. For example, he explained to us - in painstaking detail - how the Kurds tried to enact monetary policy and control inflation during the 1990s while facing an economic war from Saddam with strong support from Turkey and Iran. He also shared with us his frustrations with the policies of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) towards Kurdistan. He described the cumulative effects of CPA policies as a "tremendous blow" to the Kurdish economy. In many aspects, the economy here did better under the double embargo of the 1990s then it did after the fall of Saddam.

Tomorrow morning we will begin our long journey home. The first step will be a ride back to Suli where we will try to meet with the Vice President of Iraqi Kurdistan. Our flight leaves at 5 PM to Amman and from there we leap to Istanbul before we touch down in the USA. Once we pack our things we will both share some final reflections from the trip... stay tuned.

The Final Lineup

So we realize some of you got the impression that all we did here was eat hommus and try to follow American football from afar... To alleviate your fears we thought we would share our list of interviewees over the last 2.5 weeks. While we did not manage to meet with everyone we wanted to meet with, in the main we are rather pleased with the breadth of folks we had the chance to interview.


Iraqi Kurdistan Research Interviews, Winter 2006
(* denotes meeting in Iraqi Kurdistan)

Ayub Nuri, Kurdish Journalist
Jessie Graham, NPR Reporter
Hania Mufti, Human Rights Watch
*Ala Jabbary, Lecturer, Sulaimany University and former member of Jalal Talabani’s Secretariat
*Rev. Denha Hana Toma, Chaldean Vice Patriarch in Sulaimany
*Aziz Hassen Aziz, Head of Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Military Services
*Ferhad Mahmoud, Reporter, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Sulaimany
*Mala Bakhteyer, Leading member of PUK
*Twana Osman, Editor, Hawlati Independent Weekly
*Mamosta Saifuddin Ali, Head of PUK Security Agency, Asayish
*Jalal Abdullah Sulemani AKA Jalal “Democrat”, Independent Journalist
*Hama Tawfeeq, Head of PUK Foreign Relations
*Dana Ahmed Majeed, Governor of Sulaimany
*Fareed Asasard, Director, Kurdistan Center for Strategic Studies
*Jamal Fuad, Former Minister of Agriculture, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
*Karim Zand, Historian
*Three dozen graduate students, University of Sulaimany
*Faruk Mustafa Rassool, Chairman of the Board, Asiacell
*Dr. Diar Ahmed, CEO, Iraqicom Technologies
*Dr. Khasraw, Abdulla Rashid Assistant Professor, Director of Foreign Relations, University of Sulaimany
*Namo S. Majeed, Program Manager, Civil Society Initiative
*Shorsh M. Amin, Public Relations Officer, Civil Society Initiative
*Krekar A. Khoshnaw, Chief of Staff, Kurdistan National Assembly
*Nawzad Hadi, Governor, Erbil
*Abdul Karim Sultan Sinjari, Minister of State for the Interior, KRG
*Azad I. Mala Afandi, Minister of State for Justice, KRG
*Dr. Mohammed Ihsan, Minister of Extra Regional Affairs and former Minister of Human Rights
*Falah Mustafa Bakir, Director, Office of Foreign Relations, KRG
*Ismat Argushi, Head of Asayish, KRG
*General Mustafa Ali Bawilaja, Director, Erbil General Prison
*Professor Denise Natali, Honorary Fellow, Institute for Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter University
*Michael Parker, Senior CPATT Liason Officer, Ministry of the Interior, KRG
*Muhammed Rauf, Minister of Trade, KRG
*Colonel Howard Thevenet, U.S. Army Colonel, Camp Zaytun, Erbil
*Khawla Khanekah, National Officer, Education Section, UNICEF
*Harry Schute, Jr., Director, Point 62 Consulting
*Dr. Mohammad Sadik, President, University of Salahaddin
*Jelena Lukic, Resident Program Officer, Governance and Public Policy, International Republican Institute (IRI)
*Djordje Todorovic, Resident Program Officer, IRI (Erbil)
*Shayan Nuradeen, Program Assistant, IRI (Erbil)
*Sarkis Aghajn, Minister of Finance, KRG
*Dr. Shafiq Qazzaz, Former Minister of Humanitarian Aid, KRG



Your correspondents in Kurdistan...

The final stretch?

Dearest readers,

Incredibly, today was our second-to-last day of research here in Iraqi Kurdistan. Of course, it's too soon for the credits to roll on this project, but we've already begun thinking of ways and means of translating our research into products we can share: web-based multimedia pieces, academic thesis/journal articles, first-person journalistic accounts, 13-month "Iraqi Kurdistan Beachwear" calendars, and the like. If you have any ideas, please send them our way.

But before the final reflections get everyone weeping, here's a few photos from the day in the markets of Erbil...


Erbil street market


A woman in chador just outside the market


A Kurdish man trying to sell his rugs


Here's a hilarious taxi driver whom we met today, listening at Zakaria at extraordinary volumes...what a killer smile...

More soon...

Go Buckeyes! (Matan) Go Gators! (Matt)

Dearest readers,

A selection of images from the past few days--we hope these will give a better sense of some issues we've been grappling with recently...


In the city center of Erbil, massive construction competes for space with the past. As I posted earlier, and as I will explain in more depth later, I'm skeptical that this sort of economic activity is sustainable for the region.


Here's a food stall in Erbil. Ok, don't get me wrong, the economy is healthier now than it had been under Saddam. From 1992-2003, when the Kurds operated as a de facto state--with the US defending, by air, the no-fly zone--the region was under two embargoes: one that was placed on the whole of Iraq, from the international community (the Kurds were still technically in Iraq, of course), and an additional embargo, this one only for the Kurds, was administered by Saddam. The goods that came into the region were smuggled in from Turkey to the west or Iran to the east.

In 1996, the UN Oil for Food program was designed and implemented to ameliorate the worst effects of the embargo on Iraq's populace. But because the UN places such an emphasis on state sovereignty--you've heard this before--any program to help the Kurds had to go through where? Ah crap, Baghdad. So it's no surprised when the program suffered from massive amounts of international and Iraqi corruption. And yes, Baghdad did everything in their power to skim money any way, and to provide the Kurds with inferior goods, like expired food and sour milk. But, the program was better than nothing, and gave the Kurds a life line to survive. I'm still worried about the economy now, though.


Here's a muddy soccer field near the center of the city. Note the giant mosque in the background. The Kurds love soccer, and there are several Kurdish players on the Iraqi national team. See here for a story on them in today's nytimes, and here for an interesting read about soccer and globalization.


Residential street in Erbil near dusk.


Here's the "Sheraton" we mentioned in an earlier blog. Apparently, its construction was being supported by the Iraqi Government before the first Gulf War. Just as it was about to open, the revolt of the Kurds, the swift counter-attack by Saddam, and the no-fly zone was put in place. Baghdad pulled all of its civil servants out of Kurdistan and abandoned the project. The Kurds looked into finishing it, but rejected the high costs of licensing it as an official Sheraton brand hotel, so they left the original sign (which says Sheraton on it), and opened it anyways.


Giant concrete walls protecting the Sheraton from potential threats, and a peshmerga (Kurdish fighter) patrolling outside.


Finally, we have our mutual hero, Matan, enjoying a small lunch.

More coming later, as always, dear readers.

Go Pats!

The feast holiday came to an end today – the streets filled with children on their way to school and cars filled the drenched roads as people returned to work. We spent the morning at the Kurdish National Assembly (KNA) for the formal opening of the winter session. On the first day after the feast it is customary for common people to come greet their representatives in the parliament and spend some minutes speaking with them and eating treats. Matt and I spent several hours with the chief of staff of the parliament as dozens of people cycled through his office – a terrific tradition indeed. It was exactly at this gathering in 2004 that members of the Islamist group Ansar al Islam blew themselves up in simultaneous attacks on the Erbil headquarters of the two leading parties. Scores of people were killed and hundreds injured in an event that truly scarred the people of Kurdistan. The following May, over 50 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a recruiting station for the police. Since then, however, there has not been a single attack in either Erbil or Suli.

For our research we have been trying to understand how in 1992 the Kurds managed to transition their guerilla peshmerga force into the impressive regular force of police, military, intelligence, and internal security without the formal support and aid of the international community. To gather more information we headed over to Camp Zaytun (which means Olive – as in olive branch), the Korean manned forward operating base (FOB) outside Erbil. The camp has two Korean brigades (approximately 5,000 troops) but is rapidly downsizing. There is a very small U.S. team on the base. We met with a Colonel who heads up the Border Transition Team – a small group of U.S. troops that mentor and train the border security elements in the Kurdish security apparatus.



We found a group of soldiers working hard to fix the satellite TV in anticipation of the Pats game… We too are hoping to catch a glimpse of the game by heading to the “Sheraton” later on tonight.

We only have a few days left here in Kurdistan and we are trying to fill in the missing gaps in our research. Towards that end we met with the Minister of Trade to try to get some economic figures. The Minister is also a member of the Islamic Union Party, a mainstream Islamic party with the third largest bloc of seats in the parliament. Tomorrow we will meet with a representative from UNICEF and the Minister of Finance. We also hope the weather will improve and will allow us to go on patrol with the peshmerga and see the ditch they dug around the city to prevent infiltration from insurgents.