Kurdistan Quotes

I first visited Kurdistan in 2003. I arrived in the town of Sulaimaniyah, courtesy of smugglers who drove me across the border from Iran. Sulaimaniyah was a small, charming provincial Kurdish town. (Luke Harding)

All along, American policy has been, 'We don't establish a Kurdistan.

Raymond T. Odierno

Declaration of a state(Kurdistan) is the legitimate right of the Kurdish nation. This goal should be realized, but without resorting to violence.

Massoud Barzani

We will not let the Turks interfere the issue of Kirkuk. I am not afraid of their (Turkey's) military or diplomatic power, because they interfere in matters that do not concern them. Kirkuk is an Iraqi city of Kurdish identity, all geographic and historic facts prove that Kirkuk is part of Iraqi Kurdistan and Turkey has no right to interfere in this matter. If Turkey allows itself interfere in the matter of Kirkuk because of a few thousand Turkmen, we will do the same with regard to Diyarbakir (Amed) and other Kurdistani cities in Turkey because of 30 million Kurds.

Massoud Barzani

I am informing you of our displeasure over the arrest of the Iranian civilian official without consulting the government of Kurdistan. That is a humiliation for the regional administration. You ignored our authority. I ask for his immediate release in order to maintain healthy relations between Iran and Kurdistan and for the prosperity of Kurdistan.

Jalal Talabani

We are trying to persuade all the Iraqi opposition to come breathe freedom in Iraq and use liberated Kurdistan as a base for our common struggle.

Jalal Talabani

Whenever we went out to film in the street we would end up in the police station and in the offices of some other security agency. They deliberately intimidated us. I moved to Kurdistan and changed my name and made my first feature film in Kurdistan with very basic resources.

Hassan Blasim

Because I worked as a newspaper reporter for about 14 years before attempting my first novel, I learned to write under almost any circumstances- by candle light, in longhand, in African villages where there was no power, under shelling in Kurdistan.

Geraldine Brooks

I left Kurdistan in April 2003 with the peshmerga, following their excited advance as Saddam's forces crumbled. First Kirkuk, then Mosul - where looters broke into the city museum and seized its Parthian sculptures - then Tikrit. I reported from Baghdad in month-long stints until the end of 2004.

Luke Harding

In Kurdistan, theres a lot of hardship - a lot of wars, a lot of bitter and difficult lifestyles. And witnessing all those made me a director.

Bahman Ghobadi

The hegemonic powers also used religion and nationalism to preserve their supremacy. In all parts of Kurdistan, Islam is a state religion used as a tool for controlling the population. Even if these regimes embrace secularism, the entanglement of political and religious institutions is obvious. (Abdullah Öcalan)

Iranian intelligence services have acquired information that show the United States, Britain and Israel have been behind the unrest in various parts of Iran, including Khuzistan, Kurdistan and West Azerbaijan in the past few years.

Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi