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Divided by the borders of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, around 40 million Kurds comprise the world’s largest stateless nation.
DERIK, Syria, Oct 13 2013 (IPS) - After fleeing the war three months ago, Gulnaz is headed back for Syria to bury her brother within the 24 hours Islam stipulates. But it is far from easy to take the coffin across the Syrian-Iraqi border.
Located 460 northwest of Baghdad, the Kurdish town Peshkhabur has witnessed unusual traffic of people over the last months. Most are refugees coming from Syria but there are also
those forced to go back to the war-torn land they left behind. Gulnaz is devastated so it’s her companion who provides the details.
“After the Islamists’ offensive in July we moved to Erbil (the administrative capital of Iraqi Kurdistan 390 km north of Baghdad) but in pure bad luck her brother died in a car accident,” he tells IPS as they wait patiently for the Kurdish border officials on the Iraqi side to check their documents.
The cluster of buildings from which cross-border traffic is managed hardly differs from customs offices elsewhere: baggage is thoroughly checked by men in uniforms while officials in plain clothes enter data in their computers behind their windows. About an hour later, it’s
actually the absence of any new stamp on the passport which reveals the unique nature of this customs.This is the border between the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq – the closest thing to a country that the Kurds have ever enjoyed- and the north-eastern region of Syria, which remains today under the control of the Syrian Kurds.
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A group of Kurdish mourners bound for Syria board on the Iraqi shore. Credit: Karlos Zurutuza/IPS.
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