Diary: Reform, Kipling, and pomegranates – my 2 weeks in Kurdistan

A prominent British columnist recently accused former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair of opening the gates of hell by invading Iraq in 2003. I was busy criss-crossing the Kurdistan Region on a fortnight’s visit when I read this scathing critique. While the weather was pretty hot by British standards, the warm reception I received could hardly be described as hell. 

The commentator’s lazy hot air defies history and denies modern reality. After all, the gates to hell were open well before 2003, which wasn’t Year Zero from which all failings flow. Remember the Anfal genocide? The older Sunni/Shiite schism? And while the West has done much wrong in the Middle East, it cannot always be blamed for Iraqi actions.

I was in Kurdistan for the 28th time since 2006 for a board meeting of the European Technology and Training Centre, which has tutored thousands of civil servants and is its premier training agency. We visited the Governor’s offices by Erbil’s citadel where the ETTC commissioned urban art to prettify the blast walls. Clearing litter and landscaping more scrubland elsewhere would help too.

I stayed to present the recent report of the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq to different audiences. We visited Kurdistan and Baghdad in May and the report examines the last year: from the joy of the referendum to the misery of the blockade and the failed attempt to invade and dissolve the Kurdistan Region. I salute the Peshmerga who died in defending Kurdistan.

Baghdad’s needless violence to uphold a voluntary union speaks volumes about how Kurds are perceived in Baghdad but our report urges the Kurds to show robust pragmatism in seeking deals with Baghdad where those who tried to squash Kurdistan are now weaker.

Foreign Minister Kak Falah kindly gave me a platform to meet diplomats and the press at his ministry. I stressed that the Kurds had yet again survived the worst that Baghdad had thrown at them.

I also praised Kurdistan’s global assets. One of these is a deep religious tolerance and pluralism. I visited the small village of Bedial near Barzan, where the St George’s church dates from 469 and symbolises the long and treasured presence of Christians who are protected as full citizens.

I also broke bread with Father Najeeb, who bravely rescued ancient bibles and manuscripts from Mosul just ahead of Daesh (ISIS) forces who would have quickly slaughtered him and burned the books. A true hero.

The KRG has been generous in protecting displaced people from Mosul and Syrian refugees for many years. An old friend, Hoshang Mohamed, the head of the respected Joint Crisis Co-ordination Centre, detailed the lack of help from Baghdad and how UN projects are badly underfunded. 

The singer/songwriter, presenter, and activist Dashni Morad invited me to visit a library for Syrian Kurdish children near Erbil. Her charity, Green Kids, is doing great work and she is an excellent advocate of environmentalism and feminism. Dashni gives of her soul for humanity.

She asked me to read a story and I selected Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book. I never thought I’d be reading this to young Syrians, whose eyes burned bright despite their plight.

There were hundreds of thousands of tomes in the huge international book fair in Erbil, a good sign of intellectual health, as was the forum of the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) think tank I popped into. Its head, Dlawer Al-Alaldeen, is an old friend who persuaded Britain’s former Prime Minister John Major to establish the no-fly zone in 1991. 

Another asset is progress on women’s rights. I visited the formidable Pakhshan Zangana and Florin Gorgis at the Women’s High Commission. These heroines are rightly proud of the reduction in FGM and domestic violence with consistent support from KRG leaders but more to do.

Every time I visit Kurdistan, friends tell me to be careful – but it’s much safer than London. Its tight internal security is thanks to Interior Minister Karim Sinjari, making Erbil the fifth safest city in the world according to a recent survey.

I saw the wildlife in the countryside and sampled the nightlife in the city. Dining was once wall to wall kebabs but now I tucked into steaks, Thai curries, and sushi and had a tipple or two in decent bars. The food economy, however, involves too much salt and sugar – it used to be sugar with a bit of chai, but now you add your own. And then there’s nicotine before, during, and afterwards. This diet causes chronic and expensive health problems – though I admit to the occasional cigar myself.

I have witnessed major change since 2006. Ashti Hawrami deserves credit for building a modern oil and gas sector from scratch. When I began my journeys around Kurdistan, it also seemed likely that Turkey would invade. It did, with thousands of businesses and workers and the economic detente with Turkey remains vital to both countries. That took some doing.

The other neighbour, Iran, is more problematic. I visited two Iranian Kurdish parties in Koya to pay my respects to those killed and injured when long-range Iranian missiles recently blasted a camp. I saw the damage between huge frescoes of two leaders cruelly assassinated by Iranian death squads in Vienna and Berlin. The attack on Koya was an outrage against the Kurdistan Region too. 

But there is still much to do in Kurdistan. Our report advocates thorough reform to overcome the dysfunctional economy and boost growth, allowing Kurdistan to become a hub that bridges Europe and the bigger market of Iraq.

The diagnosis is clear: the state employs too many people, the private sector is puny, the country relies too heavily on oil revenues, although the massive potential of agriculture, tourism and light industry could boost private businesses and provide more reliable revenues. A sustainable, democratic and Kurdistani capitalism is needed.

At the Department of Foreign Relations I highlighted pomegranates, Hanar in Kurdish, which can generate more income per barrel than oil. Why not, I said, export Hanar from Halabja to supermarkets in the UK. Western consumers of this superfood could then see Halabja as a source of health rather than the chemical weapons attack of 1988. By coincidence, there was a Hanar festival in Halabja that day.

An old colleague, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, who I worked with for ten years when she was the UK High Representative and who is now in Washington, was also in town with a large American trade delegation. I attended their large networking breakfast and hope there will be a large British delegation and an official visit by the KRG prime minister to London – ASAP.

The last four years have been awful thanks to Baghdad’s belligerence over the budget and war with Daesh. Economic growth stalled, judging by the idle cranes atop many skeletal buildings in Erbil, as many projects were mothballed. Some projects have started but more foreign investors are needed. 

I’m always looking for other projects that the UK can do to our mutual benefit. Solar power, anyone? How about British campuses and departments? 

I also took the APPG message on the road and spoke with a couple of hundred students at universities in Soran, Duhok, and Erbil. Back in 2006 many students seemed rather meek but I was glad that some asked tough questions about visas for Kurds and British policy towards the independence referendum. 

People often assert that Britain accepted the takeover of Kirkuk because of an agreement, the day after it was seized, between oil giant BP and the federal government over oil in Kirkuk. Conspiracies are difficult to prove or disprove. I can only swear that it was fairly routine, the timing was a coincidence, and it did not determine British policy, with which I had my own differences. I took coffee with Martyn Warr, our dedicated diplomat in Erbil.

The UK is building a Reform Partnership with the KRG, helping modernise and unify its Peshmerga and a professional Finance Ministry, and encouraging better online delivery of public services. 

Associated with this is the Kurdistani Parliament’s invitation to the APPG to provide skills transfer so new MPs can adapt the best of Westminster’s practices. Kurdistani MPs can then make parliament a place where laws are made efficiently and ministers held to account. I popped into parliament to discuss the details with the outgoing acting Speaker and officials and I am struck by their enthusiasm which I hope we can meet, maybe from the new year.

During my visit, the government in Baghdad was being formed and the results of the Kurdistani elections were validated, which mean a new Kurdistani cabinet. Both offer the chance of a fresh start and a strong KRG within Iraq.

I hope it was not undiplomatic but I quoted the current saying that it is not true that Iraq is a failed country – it is not even a country. Iraq has never been a warm house for the Shiites or the Kurds, and many Sunnis now feel alienated, as do people in Basra. Getting governance right is vital to preventing a new Daesh and soft partition if federalism again fails. Baghdad centralisation and dogma have needlessly cost the country billions and a proper deal would generate stability and encourage internal and external investors in jobs and services.

Kak Falah and other leaders often tell visitors that the Kurds live in a tough neighbourhood, that Kurds choose their friends but not their neighbours, and the older and sadder saying is that the Kurds have no friends but the mountains. 

Kurdistan’s friends across the world should maximise their solidarity and straight-talking about reform - the key to surviving and thriving is in Kurdistani hands. My fortnight in Kurdistan convinces me that this is doable, come hell or high water.