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Unpublished
Kurdistan, when Peshmerga
go into real estate
There
is an Iraq where the rumble of bombs is drowned out by that of backhoes.
Skyscrapers and rows of detached houses bloom like flowers in the
desert. And 250 students are getting ready to attend the country's
first American university. It's Kurdistan. The region torn by Saddam
Hussein's bombings is today a bridgehead for the country's reconstruction.
But its dream of independence, once again, is in the hands of the
United States.
Peschkot
is only 40 years old, but already he can be considered a successful
man. His five-star hotel, a glass building that dominates the city
of Erbil, in northern Iraq, sees a steady coming and going of businessmen
and military personnel, diplomats and government officials. He,
instead, travels back and forth to Europe. A monthly check-up is
the medical prescription for survivors of the chemical attack of
Operation Anfal, in 1988. The genocidal campaign by which Saddam
Hussein tried to suppress the Kurdish people's dreams of independence
once and for all: 182,000 people killed and 1,200 villages razed
to the ground. Peschkot Dezayi, that night, was in the mountains
along with his fellow comrades in the armed resistance. Peshmerga
they were called, which in Kurdish means "those who confront
death". They ate whatever nature gave them, they smoked foul,
smuggled cigarettes, they slept during the day and moved at night.
Each with a different area of specialization. His: rockets, with
which he was able to strike Saddam's forces from great distances.
The
path that led him from those mountains to the Plaza Hotel took him
through a small film venture with Iran, then a photography shop,
and finally a construction business of his own. Smoothing the way
was the United States. Which in 1991 spread its protective wing
over Kurdistan, declaring the region a no-flight zone and seeing
to it that considerable sums intended for reconstruction were directed
there. Peschkot obtained dozens of contracts from the Americans:
30 million dollars for camps, schools and hospitals. More than enough
to set aside a tidy nest-egg for his dream: to construct a lavish
hotel in the heart of Erbil. «Earlier I served the country
in the armed resistance, now I am taking part in its reconstruction»,
he says. But if an indomitable peshmerga can be transformed into
a successful real estate contractor, then anything can happen in
Kurdistan.
The
new millionaires
We are in Iraq. And yet in this northern region - independent since
1991 and having over time acquired an anthem, a flag, a parliament
and a self-styled national soccer team - instead of U.S. military
force transports moving about, there are limousines filled with
businessmen. At the international airport of Erbil, instead of military
planes landing, there are Austrian Airlines flights that connect
Kurdistan with the major European cities. And in the evening, no
curfew empties the streets of the cities: the residents of Erbil,
Sulaymaniyah and Duhok, the three provincial capitals, meet for
a stroll through the shopping center, a game at the stadium or a
turn around the amusement park, with its dodgem cars, ejection seats
and popcorn.
The
concrete blocks surrounding the ministerial buildings and international
hotels remind us that we are in a country at war. But the artists
commissioned by the regional Government have covered them with murals.
As a result, today these barriers no longer attest to a fear of
attacks. Instead they represent the traditions and legends of a
people that for 80 years has fought for self-determination and is
now closer to it than ever before.
Last
May, in Erbil, a truck bomb in front of the Ministry of the Interior
killed 15 persons, demonstrating that no place, in Iraq, is safe
from violence. Much less this capital of the independent region
of Kurdistan, 350 kilometers from Baghdad. But soon enough, the
rumble of bombs was overshadowed by that of backhoes. Skyscrapers,
rows of detached houses and hotels bloom like flowers in the desert.
The sky bristles with cranes. And on the streets, enormous billboard
advertisements sell dreams with improbable names like Italian City,
English Village, Empire, Dream City: all residential complexes with
over 600 homes, sold at a price ranging between 150,000 and 700,000
dollars.
Up
until two years ago, Erbil's suk, the bazaar, was the financial
heart of the region. Today businessmen can choose among 15 brand-new
banks. Indispensable for a people who are becoming wealthy at a
staggering rate: in Erbil, 84 individuals declare more than 60 million
dollars. In Sulaymaniyah there are 50 millionaires, 24 in Duhok.
For these nouveaux riches, suitable cars are needed. Possibly an
SUV, the city version of the 4x4 that the peshmerga used in the
mountains: «I sold 500 of them in 2006 alone», says
Hunar Majeed, manager of the Cihan Group showroom, the city's only
Toyota dealer. «But Chevrolet and Mercedes sales are also
strong».
Democracy
school
Since September, the children of the new Kurdish bourgeoisie can
study at the prestigious American University that opened in Sulaymaniyah,
the sixth in the Arab world: 10,000 dollars a year for a higher
education in English, economy, public administration, political
sciences and information technology. «All fundamental subjects
for Iraq's future», says university president Owen Cargol.
«To which classes in philosophy and western policy are added,
as well as the foundations of American democracy. From these classrooms,
I am sure, the new leadership of Kurdistan and of Iraq will emerge».
The investment of 10 million dollars was borne by the U.S., Kurdish,
Iraqi and Italian governments, as well as by countless donors. «And
it is only the first of three campuses that are planned: the others
will be established in Baghdad and Bassora», the chancellor
continues. «We chose to begin in Sulaymaniyah because it is
located in the most peaceful but also the most strategic region
of Iraq: it could attract Turkish, Syrian, Azeri and Iranian students».
Iraqi
vacations
The conditions are all there, after all, to allow Kurdistan to lay
claim to its own slice of international tourism. Or at least so
the regional Government thinks: with the slogan "the other
Iraq" it sells investors and tour operators on the relative
stability of the region (since 2003, not a single soldier killed
or a westerner abducted), and pitches the splendid mountains, the
archaeological sites, the cultural and religious places.
But apart from some sporadic exception, the only tourists who populate
the hotels of Shaqlava or visit the Bakhal waterfalls are Iraqis
from the south seeking relief from the bombings. Hazem Kurda, however,
does not lose hope. This man, who emigrated to Sweden twenty years
ago and is still a resident of that Scandinavian country, like thousands
of other Kurds of the diaspora did not miss a chance for the reconstruction
of his country. Consequently, upon Saddam's fall in 2003, he bought
400,000 square meters of land in the mountains overlooking his native
village, Rawanduz, 50 kilometers north of Erbil. He had the land
cleared of mines and built a deluxe hotel there, the Pank Resort.
Three million from the Kurdish government, plus dozens more invested
out of his own pocket in order to construct an Alpine style chalet,
with swimming pools, sauna and a miniature golf course. All in anticipation
of the first western tourists. «We Kurds have been peshmerga
for too long», he says. «Now we must build our country,
invest».
A
thirst for energy and hunger for agriculture
The question is: what kind of investments does Kurdistan need? «Roads,
schools, hospitals: here you can take your pick», replies
Herish Muharam Muhamad, head of the regional Government's investments
agency. Nevertheless a priority does exist. It's called energy.
Today, the kilowatts imported from Turkey and from Iran, along with
those produced by the single Kurdish power plant, ensure only 2
hours of electrical power a day in winter and 14 in summer. The
rest is provided by generators found in every building and housing
complex. But who would dare invest in dams and electric power plants
in a country still torn by war? «The future of Kurdistan depends
on that of Iraq», says contractor Salam Bradosti, president
of the Zozik Group. «You can't think about an electric power
plant unless there is peace first. And you can't expect the big
oil companies to come and pump gas or oil, until the situation is
stabilized».
But
even if the energy problem were resolved, «we cannot drink
electricity and eat oil», says Hazem Kurda, owner of the Pank
Resort. «In fertile Mesopotamia not even a tomato is now grown.
And in the land where beer was born, today not even one can is produced.
Before all the rest, perhaps we should get agriculture back on its
feet and launch industry and manufacturing». Peter Gruschka,
Dutch activist of a Kurdish NGO, agrees: «Every day in Kurdistan
a new supermarket opens its doors, but I challenge anyone to find
in it a single product that is made in Iraq. Yogurt comes from Iran.
Oil, butter, mayonnaise, ketchup and pasta from Turkey. Clothing,
including typical Kurdish attire, comes from China». Agricultural
activity has been harmed by the drought that has assailed the Middle
East for years now. But also by the perverse mechanism triggered
by UN resolution 986, better known as Oil for food: the distribution
of food imported from the West, in exchange for Iraqi oil, has definitively
destroyed what was at one time the principal economic activity of
Kurdistan.
Construction
fever
Nevertheless the numbers speak clearly: in the past year, a good
4 billion dollars were invested in development plans for the region.
Where did they wind up? «In the building trade: at present,
this is the only business that is operational in Kurdistan»,
says Herish Muhamad. «Anyone can propose a plan to the government:
if it is approved, in accordance with the new law on investments,
he will receive the hectares of land on which to build free of charge»,
says Jack el Boustany, Lebanese project manager of the residential
complex Empire. That explains, then, the numerous fences enclosing
nothing. Erbil is filled with them. «They are areas where
houses or offices will soon rise. The land is free, but before beginning
to build, the contractors wait to sell a certain number of houses
on their word of honor». Up till now, only a few projects
have been brought to completion. Among them, the towers of Naz City:
14 concrete blocks, 350 apartments in all, that have changed the
city's skyline.
Despite
the building boom, the unemployment rate in the region remains high.
The reason is simple: the contractors prefer to hire laborers who
come from Bangladesh, India and Ethiopia specifically for that purpose,
rather than hiring local workers. «They cost half what a Kurd
costs: 10 dollars a day instead of 20», Jack continues. «And
then too they are highly specialized: many of them come directly
from the shipyards of Dubai».
But
if the bulk of the population remains poor, who buys all those houses?
The answer is predictable. Three of the 14 buildings in Naz City
are intended for government officials. Just as an entire floor of
the Plaza Hotel is reserved for consuls and attachés. What
could you expect, after all, from an administration that provides
jobs for 60 percent of the active population? 1,300,000 employees,
whose paychecks exhaust the regional Government's only source of
revenue, namely, 17 percent of Iraqi oil proceeds. A system of patronage
that, in the absence of a real economy, ensures a state salary to
every Kurdish family.
A
smuggling people
In the meantime, the revenue streams that fuel the Kurdistan engine
come mainly from two sources: smuggling and the United States. The
first is a traditional activity of this border population: carpets,
cigarettes and gasoline, passed across the Iranian and Turkish borders
on a small- or large-scale basis. As for the United States, «today
we owe everything to them», says Hazem Kurda, «but we
cannot trust them: they are capable of changing their policy in
the span of a few minutes». It already happened after all,
and the Kurds have a long memory. It was the Ford-Kissinger administration
that encouraged them to rebel against Baghdad, only to then cynically
abandon them in 1975, leaving them at the mercy of Saddam Hussein's
vengeance. Thirty years earlier the Soviet Union had not behaved
any better toward the Iranian Kurds: the Republic of Mahabad, born
under its protection in 1946, collapsed after only 11 months after
having been abandoned by the superpower. And it is precisely in
order to balance an excessive dependency on the United States that
the Kurdish government is seeking to strengthen trade relations
with other European countries. The new law on investments is the
regulatory instrument for this objective, since it offers foreigners
the opportunity to run a local business with 100 percent control,
as well as to buy lands without taxes for the next 5 years.
Kirkuk,
an unknown
«If the Americans really championed the Kurdish cause»,
contractor Salam Bradosti says, «they would support the annexation
of Kirkuk to our region». This province, geographically Kurdish
and ethnically mixed, is a treasure-trove of oil: by itself it produces
900,000 barrels a day, approximately half of Iraqi exports. For
an agriculturally-oriented Kurdistan, that today is dependent on
Baghdad's oil proceeds, Kirkuk would be a guarantee of economic
independence. An essential premise for political autonomy. «But
for the United States, Kurdistan is only a tiny, worthless region»,
Bradosti goes on. Nothing compared to the strategic importance of
Turkey. Which does not spurn investing in the region: of the 600
foreign companies recorded in Kurdistan, 350 are Turkish. But which
has always looked unkindly on Kurdistan's autonomy, insofar as it
is contagious for the Kurdish minority within Turkey's own borders.
Next December 15, a referendum is to decide the issue of the annexation
of Kirkuk: it will be a test case for American policy, but also
a verdict for the future of the independent region. Because the
Kurdish dream of independence, once again, is marked by stars and
stripes.
Text
by Annalisa Monfreda ©
English
Translation by Anne Milano Appel
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