ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – South Korea’s consul general Choi Kwang-Jin has published a volume of poetry in three languages: his native Korean, English, and the language of his second home, Kurdish.
He said he published the collection to send a message that "Kurds have no friends but the mountains and Korea," referencing a famous Kurdish expression.
Choi, 52, got inspiration for the poems in the book, titled Gulala Sura, named for the red flower that blooms on the Kurdish mountains in spring, during his travels around the Kurdistan Region.
"Whenever I visited cities in Kurdistan, it [gave] me a lot of poetry inspiration, especially when I visited the Halabja monument, because of the historic background," Choi told Rudaw English on Wednesday.
He feels a connection to Halabja, which Saddam Hussein’s forces attacked with chemical weapons in 1988, because his own hometown has a similarly sad history. In 1980, South Korea’s military government of the time brutally quashed a popular uprising in Kwangju.
Choi has served as South Korea’s consul general to Erbil since February 2019, but he first visited the Kurdistan Region in 2005 as part of a peacekeeping mission. He has also held diplomatic posts in Myanmar, China, and Japan and his first volume of poetry, published in 2013, sought to promote peace between those three nations.
Around 1,000 copies of Gulala Sura were printed, 500 of them given to the Anfal Museum.
"President Nechirvan Barzani agreed to write the preface because he loves poetry and art," Choi said. "Kurdish culture is on a global stage and Kurds should be proud of their culture."
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Choi describes Kurdistan as his "second home" and is fond of playing the traditional daf drum and wearing the baggy Kurdish trousers. He now has two suits, “One Sulaimani style and the other Erbil style,” he said with a laugh.
South Korean companies have contributed to the education, electricity, and health sectors of the Kurdistan Region since 2004. Choi says they have helped build 54 schools in all four provinces, provided equipment for hospitals, and built the Khabat power station that came online this summer. During the coronavirus pandemic, the Korean Government donated $400,000 worth of testing kits and three walk-through testing stations to the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Around 1,000 Kurds live in South Korea, including students. Choi hopes to establish a Korean education office at one of the universities in the Kurdistan Region to promote Korean universities and strengthen cultural and education ties.
