Kurdistan: The Lost Homeland
STRETCHING along Turkey, Syria, Iran, and Iraq, Kurdistan essentially already has all that it takes to be a nation: land, people, history, tradition, and even heroes. But a homeland for them is still out of their grasp. Hence, from era to era, the Kurds continue to struggle, using war and peaceful efforts to attain freedom and a country. In Iraqi Kurdistan, the long struggle of the people to obtain their identity can be read clearly under the rule of each regime. In the winter of last December, amid biting weather, TEMPO reporter Rommy Fibri entered several Kurdistan areas in North Iraq. He witnessed the changes the people have been undergoing since the fall of Saddam Husseins regime. Truly, what is it that makes them survive? Is it true that this tribe will constantly be marchingtoujours en marchetowards their dream of a homeland?
Tempo
January 20, 2004
The once green tree
Is now dead
The homeland is covered all over with ashes
Everywhere you go
It is the dance of death
KURDISH Poet, Fereidoun Saman, did not have any one in mind when he wrote the poem, not even to bloodthirsty human beings. The above poem was the spiritual dialog the poet had when he was overwhelmed by feelings upon seeing the Halabja tragedy.
On that day, March 16, 1988, from Baghdad, the capital city of Iraq, Ali Hassan al-Majid c
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