A country in the mind
(Country in the mind - Kurdistan)
It is here in Northern Iraq and Eastern Turkey that I have found the living breathing example of assigning meaning to objects on a massive scale. People in academia might be excited I actually paid attention in class. Here in the mountains of this region called Kurdistan, a guy from the University of Chicago named George Herbert Mead might be right at home. Mead preached Symbolic Interactionism - in a nutshell, "meaning."
Why did Turkey invade Iraq a couple weeks ago? "Kurdish rebels in the mountains," is the story and we are all sticking with it. What's really going on here? Northern Iraq is possibly as strong now as it has been in living memory. It is not a secret in this part of the world.
Last visit to Iraq, I picked up a flashy poster with a map of the region. Going back into Turkey, my bag was searched at the border. Lucky for me it was searched by a young Turkish soldier who had lived in America. "You can be put in prison here for having that map," he said in a perfect East Coast accent, and frowned. Then he took the map and stomped on it in the mud. His pistol wearing sergeant snuffed out a cigarette and looked over the soldier's shoulder. "Move the hell on you fool," the soldier said to me and quickly turned to the next person in line. Not a good time to chat about the Yankee's.
The ubiquitous map found in this part of Iraq, is of a country in mind only - the nation of Kurdistan. The problem with the map in the Turks mind is, the map includes one quarter of Turkey in the in-mind-only nation of Kurdistan. The map also carves out great chunks of Iran, Iraq, and Syria.
As I have frequently mentioned, the Kurds also have their own flag. Don't get caught in Turkey with that either. You won't see the Iraqi flag in the north unless there is some governmental function up here where other members of Iraq are participating. Then it seems to fade away again.
The Iraqi army does not venture up here. That would be like Wisconsin for example having its own national flag, national army, and parallel national government. Imagine if you would, from an American stand point, your own state being invaded and the central government powerless to intervene.
The Turks moved their army back into their own country after a couple weeks. The diplomats exchange formalities on the incursion. The 24-hour news stations have a good tag-line with bumper music. Nothing really changed here on the street. The map, the flag, the Kurdish army stay right in place. The mind is a powerful thing.
Bob Keith
Erbil, Iraq
Jan 24, 2010 at 4:09 p.m.
Suggest removal
First off, I want to thank you Bob. As a young Kurd I'm so happy to see those picutures, my family moved to the U.S when I was only 7 and I've grown up very assimalated into the cutlure here. Lucky for me I happen to love history and be a history major, so my Kurdish roots are extremly important to me. Though I visited Sulaymaniyah and my relatives there a little under 4 years ago, it's still great to see the pictures.
Second, I'm a little confused as to your description of Kurdistan. You must know how important it is to every single Kurd just by the amount of time you spent there with Kurds.
The flag and map is so hated by Iraq, Iran, Syria and especailly Turkey not becuase they think it's a country in Kurdish minds but because it's a sign of a time that sooner or later we will reclaim our country. No Kurd wants the lands of the Arabs, Persians or Turks, we want OUR LAND back from them.
Kurds have lived in the region known as Kurdistan for literally thousands of years. And after the fall of the Ottoman Empire we were promised our nation just like the Arabs, Persians and Turks except we were betrayed by the British allies and Turks and the original treaty that would have granted us or land was changed by Turkish demands (due to the centuries old Kurdish-Turkish hostiles) with British confirmation.
Can you imagine what it must have felt like to have the dreams of a nation for an entire people (now numbering 30 million Kurds worldwide, the population of Canada) taken away by a stroke of a pen.
We don't want the lands of other people, the Turks don't hate us because we want a quarter of their country, they hate us because we want a quarter of OUR country back and they don't want to give it back.
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