The Road to Halabajah (Part 1)

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This is the first guest post in a series by Kevin Post. Check back each Wednesday to follow his unique adventure. If you want to guest post on Go Backpacking, please read more here.

View from my Couchsurfing host's apartment in Batman, Turkey

It is silly how and why we travel sometimes; it could be after seeing a dance that captivates us, a rock climbing video with breathtaking rock outcroppings or a beautiful young lady we were once infatuated with that encourages us to visit a random region of the world.

My idea of traveling the Kurdish regions of the Middle East came to mind while I was in my empty three bedroom apartment in Quito, Ecuador reading ” Crescent and Star: Turkey Between Two Worlds“? by Stephen Kinzer (highly recommended if planning a trip to Turkey) and several chapters were dedicated to the Kurdish struggle for autonomy within Turkey’s boarders.

While reading, I became incredibly intrigued by the Kurdish people as well as their struggle as the largest race of people whom never had a homeland of their own. If it weren’t for this book I had randomly found in a used English book store in the Mariscal neighborhood of Quito, I probably wouldn’t have known much or anything about the Kurdish people.

Years later, I finally had the opportunity to realize my dream to visit the Kurdish regions of the Middle East (with the exception of Iran due to political issues). I had put countless, obsessive hours preparing for this trip to learn about the Kurdish language and culture.

I will never forget how I felt when I made the decision to visit the Kurdish Regional Government of Iraq (also known as Iraq-KRG or simply Kurdistan by the Kurds); I felt excited, exhilarated, nervous, anxious as well as a little doubtful for going to a region of the world I have been told was one of the most dangerous places on earth. Nevertheless, I thrived on all of the sentiments I had felt. After speaking to countless Kurds in Turkey (in broken English, Turkish and Kurdish) I was ready; they gave me the confidence.  I was on the road to Iraqi-Kurdistan.

The Turkish/Iraqi-Kurdistan border

There weren’t any buses from Batman to Silopi (yes, there is a city called Batman in Turkey), so I had to catch a ride with one of my host’s friends from Hasankeyf to Cizre (along the Turkish-Syrian border), and from there I took what seemed to have been an incredibly long taxi ride to the Turkish-Iraq boarder town of Silopi. After plenty of searches and questioning by the Turkish military with my Turkish dictionary in hand, I made it to the border only to receive more questioning by the Turkish military: ” Are you crazy? It is so dangerous. You will be killed.”? was the theme of the conversations we had.

I felt quite confident until armed Turkish soldiers expressing so much pessimism made me think that maybe it was a stupid idea for me to venture into a country famous for its spontaneous violence; nevertheless, a voice continued to remind me that there is “no turning back.”? I simply told the Turkish military that I was visiting an American university in As Sulaymaniyah (which does exist by the way).

There wasn’t much else they could say to me, so they let me pass. The Iraqi side of the boarder crossing on the other hand was a breeze, the boarder guards saying proudly with their thick Kurdish accents, ” Welcome to Kurdistan!”? which gave me chills. I couldn’t believe as a United States citizen that I made it to Iraq as a civilian.

*Note: While crossing the boarder of Turkey into Iraq, do not mention anything related to Kurdistan due to the sensitivity of the situation between Kurdish and Turkish cultural differences. Just to be safe, do not even mention the words ” Kürtçe (pronounced Koort-Che)”? or ” Kurdistan“? while talking with boarder police or military (BIG no-no!). For the Iraqi side of the boarder, tell the boarder police that you are traveling to Halabajah to pay respect to the Iraqi-Kurds killed by Saddam. This will earn you A LOT of respect amongst the Kurds.

…TO BE CONTINUED.

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About the Author: Kevin Post from Orlando, Florida, U.S.A at the age of 18 decided to utilize travel and living abroad as his classroom with aspirations to study in the Middle East, Latin America and to become a wilderness first responder, mountaineering & rock-climbing guide. He currently works at an outdoor retailer while moving to and from Florida and Colombia to be with his wife Tomasa del Carmen. For more information regarding Kevin Post check out his blog www.amanofnonation.com and follow him on Twitter @amanofnonation.

About the Author:

Dave is the author of 1573 posts on Go Backpacking.

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Categories: Features, Iraq
Post tags: blogsherpa, Iraq, Middle East