The Great Moat of Iraqi Kurdistan with Syria Separates Families

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http://www.juancole.com/2014/04/kurdistan-separates-families.html

The Great Moat of Iraqi Kurdistan with Syria Separates Families
By Juan Cole | Apr. 18, 2014
(By Abdul-Khaleq Dosky in Dohuk, for Niqash)

To better protect their borders, authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan are digging a large trench in the area bordering Syria. Locals are protesting about it, saying that links with family and friends in neighbouring towns will be severed and economic opportunities lost; some are already describing it as a Kurdish ‘Berlin Wall’.

The Iraqi government and the government of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan are digging a trench along the Iraqi border with Syria. Ostensibly it is to better control this porous border area and to prevent smugglers and extremists from crossing into the country. The trench, which is two meters wide and three meters deep, passes through six border villages – Chelky, Suhaila, Shibani, Moska, Kalky and Qahira – and it is already having an impact on the lives of locals in these places.

“The people here have deep social and business relationships with the villagers on the Syrian side of the border,” says a local who wanted to be known only as Sami, who lives in Suhaila village. “We have relations there and we used to go back and forth into Syria with no problem. Now our movement is going to be restricted. The trench is also going to impact on the livestock trade across borders, which we’ve been doing for years.”

“My daughter-in-law’s family lives in the village opposite ours, on the other side of the border,” says another Suhaila local, a woman called Salman. “She used to be able to go and visit her family whenever she wanted to. Now she won’t be able to,” she complained to NIQASH.

And Ahmad Mustafa, a farmer living in Qahira village, says the trench actually passes through his property – he’s in the process of trying to get compensation for the loss of crops in this part of his farm; he usually plants wheat and barley there.