Nashville is home to the largest Kurdish population in the United States, with an estimated population of around 15 thousand Kurds in the city. A neighborhood in the south of Nashville is nicknamed “Little Kurdistan” due to its large Kurdish community.
Both Erbil Governor Omed Khoshnaw and Nashville Mayor John Cooper labeled the partnership as “historic”.
“It’s a historic day for Nashville,” said Cooper during a speech at the signing ceremony, describing the inking of the sisterhood agreement between the two cities as “a beacon of peace and diplomacy,” and stressing that Erbil and Nashville share a bond which “transcends geographical boundaries.”
It’s official.
— Mayor John Cooper (@JohnCooper4Nash) September 10, 2023
Nashville x Erbil are Sister Cities.
This historic Sister City partnership will focus on cultural and educational exchange, transparency in government, and making lasting connections between the people of Erbil and Nashville.
Thank you @SCNashvilleTN! pic.twitter.com/SROtQEnJEu
The Erbil governor highlighted the longstanding relations between the United States and the Kurdistan Region, expressing hope that the new partnership will allow the two cities to cooperate on achieving both shared and individual goals.
“I am very excited about the new bridge that we are building, and the new relationships, the children, the student exchange program, the cultural program that we are going to create through this,” Dalal Jaafar, a college graduate, told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda.
Erbil joins an illustrious list of cities from around the globe which share the sisterhood status with Nashville, including Belfast, Edmonton, and Kamakura, officially becoming Nashville’s first sister city from the Middle East.
Founded by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956, Sister Cities International is a citizen diplomacy network that seeks to create “relationships based on cultural, educational, information and trade exchanges,” as well as “lifelong friendships.”
