-
In the town of Tuz Khurmatu that lies on the main highway connecting Baghdad and Kirkuk people have started building iron fences and gates to separate one neighborhood from another. They are Kurds and Turkmen of Shiite and Sunni faith.
This is the result of months of violent clashes between Kurdish and Shiite forces in this town in 2015 where dozens of people were killed and wounded.
Residents of Tuz Khurmatu aren’t necessarily happy about these fences and segregation that was never a case in their town, but they see it as the only guarantee of safety for the time being.
Tuz Khurmatu has been for many years a multiethnic town but in the wake of the war with ISIS and emergence of various armed groups, tensions have also risen between its residents.
Some like Shwan still break the barriers and iron locks to visit relatives of the other faith or ethnicity.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment