ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – This dreamland for many Arabs could be different next summer. Erbil intends to hold a referendum on independence just days after start of the fall, which may be followed by the birth of an independent state. Next time they come, they could be crossing official borders.
The rest of Iraq calls Kurdistan “Shimal Habib” or Beloved North, a term that first and foremost means the high, beautiful mountainous area with cool temperature where Arabs and other Iraqis have long enjoyed camping in the cool weather.
After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the term means more — it means relative peace and security while most of Iraq has entered a cycle of violence and sectarian conflicts ever since. Now, in addition to the more than 1 million Iraqis who are now taking refuge in the Kurdistan Region, thousands of Arabs have also visited Kurdistan during the Muslim Eid holidays enjoying the climate and the environment.
Erbil does not particularly have low temperatures. It is 44 Celsius and rising today. But the nearby waterfalls and mountains, coupled with modern malls in Erbil, attract tourists.
Nawar Hamid is an Iraqi Arab from the middle of the country. He helps organize group trips to Kurdistan. He says crossing the many checkpoints to Erbil — some imposed by the Kurdish security — was easier this year compared to last year.
The call for an independent state is nothing new to him. He has been hearing it for some time now. He believes a united Iraq may cease to exist if Kurds were to leave.
“I am against it,” Hamid said of the referendum, just after he swam out of a pool in Erbil, fearing a splash in Iraq would send waves far from its center.
“I am against it because it remains Iraqi. No matter how far the components or the sects differ [from each other], they would stay Iraqis. There is one principle that we all are Iraqis. Whether we are Kurds, Arabs, [Muslims], Christians, or any other sect, we remain Iraqis despite. We should preserve the unity of Iraq. This case [the referendum] would fragment the unity.”
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Nawar Hamid, from the center of iraq at an Erbil swimming pool. Photo: Rudaw
It is the first time Furat Abdullah Aziz has visited Kurdistan with his family. He had been here before on his own. He says he respects Kurdish rights to hold the referendum. He believes the fight is for the soul of Iraq.
“I am an Arab. But if you tell me you [the Kurds] want to establish a state. I will say yes, because it is a legitimate right of every nation, or all ethnicities,” Azizi said sitting next to the pool with his wife.
Furrat Abdullah Aziz and his wife visit Kurdistan together for the first time. Photo: Rudaw
“But I have one condition — and this is my personal opinion — to not lose the brotherhood between us, the brotherhood between Arabs and Kurds as Iraqis,” Aziz said, adding that they consider Kurdistan part of the same body that would not have function normally if one part was missing.
He was optimistic though that even if the Kurds decided to leave the brotherhood as a “spirit would not leave, [that] it stays.”
He was less optimistic when asked if he would return to their Beloved North if Kurdistan became an independent state.
“If they do not stop us, we will come. I am afraid they would prevent us,” Aziz said of Kurdish security.
Younis Ahmad, enjoying his time out on a lounger, has the same fear. He said that not only Arabs may be prevented from visiting Kurdistan, but people from Kurdistan may also be prevented from visiting the rest of Iraq, drawing a doom and gloom image of relations between the two sides that may deny the Arabs the chance to revisit their best memories of their Beloved North.
