For Estonians, Kurds are not strangers

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A day before Estonians marked the 29th anniversary of their independence, ferries traveling from Sweden docked in the picturesque Estonian capital of Tallinn, where the streets were bustling with tourists who got off the boat. Estonians celebrate their freedom from the Soviet Union on August 20.

Many Kurds married to Estonians shared in their happiness with the Estonian people on Tuesday as they consider themselves part of the Estonian community, believing both nations have suffered similar persecution and enjoy a degree of cultural similarity.

Even though Estonia was founded in 1918, they pay a particular homage to August 20, 1991 when the modern state was born out of the Soviet Union’s collapse.

On Aug. 20, 1991, an attempted coup by communist hardliners in Moscow led to Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic to declare independence. Since then, Estonia has celebrated its regained independence on this date every year.

Mahnaz and her Estonian husband traveled from Sweden, which has a large Kurdish community, to Tallinn by ferry to celebrate the independence of the country with their children, wearing colorful traditional Estonian clothing.

"Our visit this time to Tallinn is special as we consider marking the independence of Estonia as important as a feast," Mahnaz told Rudaw.

Mahnaz and her husband Matios have named their three children Kurdish and Estonian names.

What has made the Kurds find the event interesting is that in the same year, 1991, Kurds too waged an uprising against the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein

Yasin Taha, living in Sweden since 1980s and married to an Estonian woman, said "Estonians are the closest European nation to Kurds. What I have noticed for Kurds living in Europe is that  the most successful marriages are those done with Estonians."

Taha says he and his Estonian wife "pay respect" to Kurdish national events and celebrating them together, particularly the 1991 uprising.

"There are dozens of more families like us who commemorate these events as we share a close culture and history,” said Taha. “Many times we hold group parties and there are a few people in this country who do not know who the Kurds are.”

"In terms of politics, we very well understand each other and indeed have many grievances in common," he said, adding that both sides have suffered from "bad neighbors, occupation,  displacement and Anfal [massacre] and oppression."

"In the 1980s we were put under the desert sands of Iraq while they were buried collectively alive in the 1940s and 1950s in Siberia," said Taha, referring to the mass deportation of Estonians by the Soviet Union to Siberia.

At least 182,000 Kurds were systematically executed by Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime in the late 1980s. They were taken to Iraq’s southern desert provinces where they were killed and buried en masse.

Another thing which has made Kurds living within the Estonian community happy was Estonia's stance towards the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum of September 25, 2017.

"The Estonian parliament was the first international political center which respected the will of independence and referendum [by Kurds]. This shows our shared history and common understandings. This really made me happy making me proud of them," Rebwar Hamalaw, who like two of his relatives is married to an Estonian woman, told Rudaw.

One month after the independence referendum vote in September 2017, the Estonian parliament issued a statement supporting the right of self-determination for the people of the Kurdistan Region. 

Hamalaw said that on the day of the referendum vote, the people of Estonia "would commend me saying ‘you made the right decision.’ They very much do understand us."

Hamalaw recommends more Kurds marry Estonian women.

Sami Mustafa, a sociology expert in Sweden, says the year 1991 is of particular importance for Kurds and Estonians.

"After the freedom of 1991, unemployment and economic crisis gripped both sides. Kurds and Estonians alike flocked to thenorth of Europe, including Sweden and Finland,” he said. “Therefore, if you notice, the majority of Kurds who have married Estonian women do live in Sweden and Finland.”

Estonia is now a member of the EU and NATO, known for its expertise in e-governance and in countering cyber-warfare in which it punches well over its weight as a country of 1.3 million people. Its position at the borders, in the confines of the Russian 'prison of nations,' and at the borders again of a vast imperial neighbor also makes it hyper-sensitive to the dilemmas of small nations in international relations.


In late May, Deputy Prime Minister of the KRG Qubad Talabani attended a two-day e-governance in Tallinn. 

 

Translated by Zhelwan Z. Wali