----------
Forwarded message ----------
From: Inna Bakker <innabakker@gmail.com>
Date:
Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 12:03 AM
Subject:
Fwd: # 3-------Erbil--capital of Kurdistan, Iraq
My
dear family and friends
thank
you for replying to my emails, some
of you saw my photos ,some do not unfortunately, every
time i use a different computer in a different hotel, put
a lot of time and effort to upload and email photos,
this is the most visual and pleasant part of traveling emails,
but
not working all the time.,
please
let me know about it,
we
flew Baku-Istanbul- Erbil,
please
look at the map,
i
learned a lot about Kurds, there
are about 25 millions Kurds in the world, they live in Turkey,
Syria,
Iran, Iraq and fight for independence and to have their country,
in Iraq,
Kurdistan is an autonomy, kurds are very ancient people,lived
in this region since 247 BC, they were conquered and converted by
Arabs to Islam -SUNNI many centuries ago, Kurdish language belongs to
Indo European group but they use Arabic alphabet, everywhere
extra security, many check point, a lot of soldiers on the street,
feels safe,
we
toured old city,huge market, the oldest tea house, only for men, they
wanted photos with me and gave me a present--framed picture of Erbil
with 3 faces of their leaders--Barzani family who fought for their
independence,
Citadel
is a very old round structure like a fort of the city, now it is
a museum,
inside
we visited Museum of Textile, got a photo of a men in a Kurdish outfit
and photo of a soldier there, at lunch we met a group of young
ladies
in Kurdish dresses celebrating graduation from medical and dental
school, studying in English,
we
met a Danish lady from Baghdad working for USAID, she told us that
all
Westerners live in the compound, do not go out, very dangerous, always
a lot of guards around every person,
people
on the streets, in the hotel are very friendly, try to help very
much, we see a lot of constructions, tour guide told us that a
lot
of foreign companies are doing business here, they pump oil in the South
of Kurdistan and
share with Iraqi central government, economy is good,
Kurdish
Jews lived here for generations, had a good relationship with tribal
chieftains,
many emigrated to Israel, settled around Safed and Jerusalem, now
about 150,000 of them there.
women
on the streets dressed half and half in western and traditional
Muslim
clothes, some cover faces,, weather was nice, about 20 C or
70
F,
food
--a lot of lamb and vegetables, it was a very pleasant experience to
be in Erbil,
there
are beautiful mountains and ski resort.
next--Iran
my
love to all, Inna
sorry,
no check spelling on this computer.
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