Between the walls

I had the chance to visit Iraq twice during the last month. Together with a group of colleagues, I have witnessed historic developments in Turkish-Iraqi relations between these two visits. The first visit was made to Baghdad on Oct. 15 by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and during this visit, 48 agreements were signed to take bilateral relations to another level. Members of the Turkish and Iraqi cabinets had held joint meetings, taking important decisions.

I also had the chance to witness the historic visit to Basra, Arbil and Mosul by Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, the mastermind behind the emerging foreign policy of the new Turkey, and Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Çağlayan between Oct. 30 and 31. Undoubtedly, visiting Basra and Mosul had much significance, but the visit to Arbil constituted the historic part of the visit. I wrote about my observations and assessments concerning the diplomatic and political aspects of the visit in a previous article. But in this piece, I would like to give you the observations of a person who has had a chance to see four major cities in Iraq, namely Baghdad, Basra, Arbil and Mosul, within the last 15 days.

Baghdad: Meaning “the garden given by God,” or simply “gift of God” in the Persian language, Baghdad was established near the ancient city of Babylon. During the Abbasid Empire, it had a population of 2.5 million and became the capital of the Islamic state. After 1058, it became a popular destination for many Seljuk sultans. It was also a major province during the Ottoman period. The long-suffering inhabitants of this city, located on two sides of the Tigris River in upper Mesopotamia, currently under occupation, are now destined to live between walls. Although I said above that I visited Baghdad, there was not much opportunity to see anything other than the walls consisting of high concrete blocks. Perhaps as a price for accompanying the prime minister, we had to travel through channel-like roads protected by high concrete slabs, armed Humvees and jeeps, and helicopters, from the airport to the “green zone.” Yet this trip was sufficient to get an idea of what living in Baghdad under US occupation means. We understood that the Iraqi administration has done nothing but assume that it can govern the country from this narrow zone, which is like a prison surrounded by walls. Beyond the wall? We did not have a chance to see it, but we know it by heart: attacks, bombs, deaths, the shedding of the blood of innocent people... Domestic and foreign news agencies are posting news stories about the life here that is lived by the people outside the wall.

Basra: Located to the south of Iraq, it is the country’s second largest city and most important port. In Basra, from which the British occupiers pulled out relatively early, there are not many security walls. Therefore, we had an opportunity see the city and witness its heart-rending condition, although we were still traveling with escorts and under intensive security. True, there are no security walls made of concrete blocks around. But, in Basra, one had the urge to say, “If only we had traveled in between the concrete walls alongside the road and I had not had the chance to see this horrifying scene…” Because there is not much of a city to see: only ruins, destroyed buildings, poverty, wretchedness and people’s unsmiling faces... We discussed among ourselves how much of this can be attributable to Saddam Hussein, who had intended to repress the growth of the Shiite population, and how much is the work of the US and British occupation. Whoever is responsible for it, the persecution and neglect Basra has suffered stands before us like a monument of shame.

Arbil: Arriving in Arbil, which constituted the most important part of Davutoğlu’s visit, we had a big surprise. At first glance, the city gives us the impression of a settlement which has nearly completed building its infrastructure and which has big shopping centers, luxury villas and modern apartments, most of which were or are being built by Turkish contractors and where life carries on safely into the late hours and whose bureaucratic systems function smoothly. Security concerns are far from the minds of people, as if we were not in Iraq, crippled by war and occupation. Arbil, and perhaps the whole of northern Iraq, lives in security and peace under the rule of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) as if the world’s most insecure and most conflict-stricken region was not just 70 or 80 kilometers away. Arriving in Arbil, one gets the impression of visiting a European city whose development had been postponed and which is trying to close the gap with all its might. Arbil has benefited considerably from the 18-year period of relative stability in the region, while the rest of Iraq has been hit hard by chaos since the first Gulf War.

Mosul: If I tell you how we traveled to this city, located only 80 kilometers from Arbil, I think it will be sufficient to give you an idea about the sad situation in Mosul. You are not allowed to travel overland to Mosul, which is known as the most unsafe place in Iraq. Our plane took off from the Arbil airport, and after a flight of around 14 minutes, it landed at the Mosul airport, where one gets the impression that no civilian aircraft ever land. Everywhere in this city is full of high-rise concrete blocks and wire fences. Unlike Basra and Baghdad, there is another kind of wall here: the security wall, resembling the Great Wall of China, made from big sacks of canvas and wire, filled with soil, and placed in two lines several layers high. From the rare glimpses of the city between these walls, we imagined what a beautiful city Mosul might have been in the past with its homes and gardens. In the final analysis, it was a Sunni city, and a favorite of Saddam. But today, in addition to the physical destruction, the social and psychological devastation has hit Mosul hard.