New association to strengthen Kurdish medical, cultural ties with Italy

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An association recently launched in Erbil is aiming to further expand ties between Italy and the Kurdistan Region after it successfully sent sick children to Italy for life-saving medical treatment.

Milad Soran, 2, was one of nine children suffering from congenital heart diseases sent to Italy by a group that would later establish the Kurdistan-Italy Friendship Association, officially launched this month.

Soran was sent to Genoa in Italy for surgery in July 2019, when he was only 7 months old. Suffering from shortness of breath, stunted growth and cyanosis due to an underlying heart condition, he underwent a four-hour operation that would save his life.

“He [the father] was waiting to lose his child, When this opportunity came up; he knew his child’s life would be saved,” association member and the head of Rudaw’s health desk Dr. Aras Bradosty told Rudaw English.

Bradosty had been contacted several times by families of children who were unable to receive treatment in the Kurdistan Region. Efforts were made to send the children to Italy for treatment, funded by the Italian government with the help of the consulate in Erbil.

The Kurdistan-Italy Friendship Association was founded by 10 Kurds and 5 Italians – including doctors, artists, musicians, filmmakers, architects and businessmen.

The civil, non-political and non-profit association is sponsored by Fastlink Telecom.

In addition to sending patients from the Kurdistan Region to Italy for treatment, the group has established academic ties between Soran and Tisk universities in the Kurdistan Region and La Sapienza University in Rome, Mahir Amin, communications director at the association and a renowned Kurdish singer, told Rudaw.

In July 2019, Soran University and and La Sapienza University - the largest university in Europe and the oldest in Rome - signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop cultural, educational and scientific cooperation between the two universities.

This was followed by a visit from the president of Soran University to Rome at the invitation of La Sapienza University in November 2019.

“We want to work on the cultural arts, including theatre, cinema, music, dancing, and even fashion in 2021,” Amin told Rudaw English, adding that they want to be a bridge between those who want to practice opera -  an art form not practiced in Kurdistan  -  as well as bringing music therapy into Kurdistan, saying Italy is a “cradle of art.”

Italy is part of the US-led international coalition to defeat the Islamic State (ISIS). Italian troops stationed in the Kurdistan Region have provided training for local military police, known as the Zeravani forces. In 2018, 65 Zeravani Peshmerga graduated from VIP security and crowd control training with Italy’s military police, the Carabinieri. 

Italy opened its consulate in Erbil in December 2015, a move welcomed by Nechirvan Barzani, then-Kurdistan Region prime minister, saying Italy was one of the first countries to assist in the fight against ISIS.

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited Erbil in August 2014, among the first world leaders to do so after ISIS took control of wide parts of Iraq in June.

Italy has made major political commitments to the KRG and has been persistent in efforts to restore stability to the region and help with the fight against ISIS by providing training local security forces, weaponry, ammunition and humanitarian aid.