Initially Iraqi Kurdistan was attracting investors & business people because it was offering oil & money.
Today, it is attracting everyone who can not find a place to live or be themselves in the Middle East. Almost two million people are in Kurdistan seeking safety, diversity, coexistence and tolerance.
I am very proud and happy to see that despite attempts to creat hatred between Kurds and Arabs, Muslims and non-Muslims, no hate crime or serious racist incident has been reported against the refugees and IDPs from other parts of Iraq.
When the Islamic Savages of Iraq & Sham (iSIS) beheaded the Peshmergas, they thought they would terrorise the people of Kurdistan and creat sedition.
But today, everyone I know, Kurds, Arabs, Turkomans, Assyrians, seculars, Islamists are gathered around the Newroz fire and sent one message to ISIS: we are all on one side and you are on the other.
This Newroz is called by many the Newroz of defiance and resistance. I would add it is the Newroz of unity and determination.
Determination to defend Kurdistan from extremism and terror.
The fighters, activists and those who will celebrate Newroz tomorrow from Kobane to Diyarbakir, from Sinjar, to Jalawla and Mahabad are determined to bring about a Kurdistan that is clean from ISIS and offers a place for everyone who seeks liberty, freedom, tolerance and coexistence.
In the past there was a myth that Kurdistan poses a threat to these joke states in the Middle East that crumble with the first real challenge.
Today, Kurdistan poses a threat to ISIS.
In the past they used to say, Kurdistan is the other Iraq.
Today, it is becoming the other Middle East!
Well done Kurdistan.
Proud to be from this place.
Happy Newroz.
