GULALA, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdish town of Gulala has known years of suffering – from Saddam Hussein’s Arabization policy, then the brutality of terrorist organizations, and now from the lack of infrastructure in the city. The town is perhaps most haunted by the heavy-handed rule of the Islamic State (ISIS). But residents say relations between Kurds and Arabs are better now than they have ever been.
The liberation of the town, once subject to the ruthless rule of ISIS, cost many lives. Gulala is 30 kilometers from the town of Kalar, in the southern reaches of the Kurdistan Region. The town once suffered greatly from Saddam Hussein’s Arabization policy which was designed to change its demography. Arabization reduced the Kurdish population from the majority to 20 percent, according to the 1977 census.
A number of Kurdish families returned to Gulala after the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom. They did not stay long, however, leaving the town again when Kurds became the target of violence and abductions by terrorists.
The demographic changes in the town paved way to ISIS gaining a strong foothold there. Some Arabs who had been brought into the town under Saddam Hussein reportedly contacted ISIS and facilitated an attack on Gulala.
ISIS took complete control of the town by August 11, 2014.
“We deserted the town before it completely fell to ISIS because it became a battlefield. We heard from media outlets how brutal they were,” said Fawze Abdul-Jabar, who left the town two years ago.
The Peshmerga regained control of the town in December 2014 following heavy clashes with ISIS, which left it in ruins. ISIS rigged most of the houses and buildings with bombs before they were evicted from the town, leaving a big trail of devastation behind.
The town is barely livable now. It is completely destroyed.
“We have too many problems. There is very little public service in the town. There is hardly any electricity. The voltage is very weak if there is any at all. There is no drinking water. We buy it. Sometimes they bring water to us by water tanks. But it is not clean. However, life is slowly beginning to go back to normal here,” said Khalaf Abdul-azez, an Iraqi citizen who has returned to Gulala.
The municipal government building was the first to be restored. It is now operational.
“ISIS had both advantages and disadvantages. Their disadvantage was that they destroyed our town, and their advantage was that they cemented the social makeup of the town. Unfortunately the Arab residents here had misunderstood the Kurds. They are now remorseful, wishing that they had not done what they did against the Kurds,” said Jacob Yusif, an Iraqi Arab from the Liheb tribe and mayor of Gulala. He speaks good Kurdish.
The population of nearby Jalawla was nearly 60,000 before ISIS. Only 20 percent of its population has returned to the town two years after its liberation but there is optimism for the town’s future.
“The peace and security which Jalawla has been enjoying after its liberation from ISIS is unparalleled. It was not that secure even after the collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime,” Yusif said.
However, life has not yet normalized on the ground. There are few shops and hardly even life in its streets. Even the mosques are nearly empty. People are still haunted by their memories of the town under the savage rule of ISIS.
Omar Mustafa’s house in Gulala was burned down during the ISIS. He, an Iraqi Arab, thanks the people of the Kurdistan Region for welcoming them to the region when they fled the town.
“Islam does not approve of ISIS, which burns and beheads people. Is there such a thing in Islam?” asked Mustafa.
ISIS blew up 35 buildings and government offices in Gulala, and damaged 800 houses. After the town was liberated, 642 bombs were defused.
“Our estimate shows that the town has suffered 630 billion IQD ($ 532,994,923) loss given the overall destruction of the town,” Yusif detailed.
CORRECTION: in the last paragraph, the news article mistakenly misquoted the official as saying the damage to the town costed $630 billion, where in fact the figure was in Iraqi Dinar.
