Kurdistan: the Other Iraq. How The Kurds Are Reshaping Northeastern Iraq

Iraq’s Kurds are independent in all but name. Technically Kurdistan is part of Iraq, but the Kurds living there behave as if they had their own separate state, with their own prime minister, parliament, national anthem, flag, and their own 175,000-man Army, the Peshmerga – those who face death. Most Kurds will tell you they do not want to have anything to do with Baghdad or the rest of Iraq. Why would they, when they are doing just fine on their own?

Since 2003, the Kurds have developed a parallel state, the most stable part of an unstable country. Kurdistan became an island of prosperity and stability, even while the rest of Iraq was collapsing into violence after the invasion by the United States-led coalition. In Erbil today, there are more cranes than minarets; there are luxury hotels, shopping malls and a residential complex known as “Dream City” where some apartments sell for as much as one million dollars.

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Kirkuk, Iraq, April, 2015. Bird market.

Iraq, April 2015. Kurdish Peshmerga near the frontline outside Kirkuk.

Arbat Internally Displaced Persons Camp, Slemani, Kurdistan, May 2015. Outside his tent in the IDP camp, the school principal, Mudhafer Abdul Nari, is about to supervise classes of hundreds of students. Waves of Iraqi Arabs sought refuge in Kurdistan. He explained: “The Kurds have protected us; we feel safe.”

Outskirts of Erbil, Kurdistan, September 2015. Peshmerga returning from the front line, waiting for a lift. The unfinished buildings in the background are a reminder of a more hopeful era. “We haven’t been paid in months,” says one soldier. “It doesn’t matter. We would all die for Kurdistan.”

October 2015. The daughter (left), mother (center), and sister-in-law (right) being photographed (and observed by the young girl). They are Yazidi, an ethnic and religious minority. The daughter and sister-in-law were forcibly married to ISIS fighters, but managed to escape to a refugee camp in Kurdistan.

Erbil, Kurdistan, October 2015. Bakhtiar Aziz (left) runs the family gun business in the city’s main bazaar. Before the conflict with ISIS, most of his work was on hunting guns, but now he repairs weapons for Peshmerga fighters and for the Kurdish intelligence and security agency, Asayish, doing the work free of charge as his contribution to the war effort.

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Kirkuk, Iraq, April, 2015. Bird market.

Iraq, April 2015. Kurdish Peshmerga near the frontline outside Kirkuk.

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However, recent gains by ISIS, the drop in oil prices and disputes with Baghdad have taken their toll on the Kurdish economy. Iraqi Kurdistan is in a dangerous area, and has been since 1991 when it first achieved a degree of autonomy that has become entrenched while the rest of Iraq has fallen apart, particularly since ISIS took control of large swaths of the country.

The political map of northern Iraq has changed since ISIS invaded Mosul, the second-largest city in the country. Kurdish forces now control Kirkuk and Sinjar, and claim to control vast expanses of land previously ruled by Iraq. This new situation for the Kurds is a paradox: the world wants the Kurds to fight ISIS, but their main interest is simply to secure Kurdistan. With the threat of ISIS, the Kurds stand united as one people aspiring to an independent state.

Yuri Kozyrev

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Yuri Kozyrev

Yuri Kozyrev

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