KurdistanObserver.com

Area Kurds Going Distance To Vote

Group Heading To Nashville To Cast Ballots in Iraq election
January 19, 2005

By GRETEL C. KOVACH / The Dallas Morning News

RICHARDSON -- A handful of Dallas-area Iraqis have started their long journey to democracy. First stop: Nashville, Tenn.

 

BRAD LOPER/DMN

From left: Kurds Hirori Abdullah, Izzit Selim (front), Issa Barzani and Omar Barzani gather in Richardson.

About 20 Iraqi Kurds stuffed their suits and leather jackets into three vans, one draped with the red, white and green Kurdish flag, and headed for Tennessee on Wednesday evening to register to vote in the Jan. 30 elections.

They planned to drive through the night, register and then return immediately to their jobs and families in North Texas. In the next few days, a dozen more vanloads of Kurds will make the trip. Then the whole group has to do it again later this month to actually vote to elect a national assembly.

Kemal Orminy, 40, of Allen negotiated for an extra day off from his job at Pizza Hut so he could leave Wednesday night. Omar Barzani, 50, of Dallas, a Texas representative of the Kurdish Democratic Party, turned his restaurant over to his manager so he could go.

"A new Iraq will come out of this election. The old Iraq was slavery for the Kurds. They gave us bullets. Now they give us ballots," said Bakh Dargali, who helped organize the 10-hour trip to Tennessee.

He hopes to join the caravan in the next few days. But like many, he's not sure he can get time off from work.

"We're going to lose at least 5,000 people's votes" from the Dallas area alone, said Zaher Zanawir, 38, of Richardson, who is still smarting from the lack of a registration and polling center in Texas. "Imagine in other cities, same thing. This is history. Why didn't they make it easier?"

There's a lot at stake in this election, they said. Kurds protected under the U.S. and British no-fly zone in northern Iraq enjoyed de facto independence from the central Iraqi government for more than a decade. Now, they fear that a Shiite theocracy could take power and deny them autonomy under a federalist system.

Mr. Dargali's wife, Allea Dargali, 32, said: "If I cannot vote, I will be very sad. It is a Kurdish dream, for the first time we can vote in a free election in Iraq."

Issa Barzani, 36, was one of the drivers for the first night. His wife has to stay home with their baby.

"Soldiers were killed in Fallujah. It is important for their families to know we support them. They died for the freedom of Iraq, and we are Iraqis. So we can drive 10 hours or more," he said.

Fatima Usman, 68, said Tennessee was too far to travel. And she wished they were voting for an independent Kurdistan. Still, it is a historic moment, she said.

"This is a very happy day for me. Under Saddam, it was always fighting and blood," she said. "We need the United States to help us say goodbye to sadness."

Karim Haji, 47, from Richardson said: "The Kurds in Iraq have been fighting the regime for 40 or 50 years to get their rights. Now everything is going by election. Everything is changing to democracy. We will elect the right people for us."

E-mail gkovach@dallasnews.com