KurdistanObserver.com

Vote casts spotlight on Nashville Kurds

 By Colin Fly

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Jan 28, 2005-For years, the thousands of Kurds living in Nashville have blended into the city’s immigrant community in relative anonymity.

But now they are in the spotlight with Iraq’s national elections that begin Friday and run through Sunday. Nashville is one of five American cities where Iraqi expatriates can vote, and nearly 4,000 of them are registered here - more than Los Angeles and Washington. Detroit and Chicago have more.

There are an estimated 8,000 Kurds living in Nashville, which they call ``Little Kurdistan.’’ It is the largest community in the United States of Kurds, an ethnic minority that has long been persecuted by Saddam Hussein in Iraq.

In 1975, the United States allowed about 2,000 Kurdish refugees to emigrate after an uprising failed to establish their own country. Many of those refugees chose Nashville because of its similar climate.

``We see a hard time back home in our country in Iraq, and we ran away,’’ said Salah Osman, a Kurd who runs a little market in Nashville. ``For that reason, the Kurdish people live together here very quietly.’’

Posters announcing the vote are tacked up outside Osman’s market, where shoppers rush in to buy fresh cuts of meat and a flat bread called nan. Osman said his customers have been buzzing with anticipation.

Many are thrilled to have a chance to vote in a real election without fear of reprisal.

``The ballot before had Saddam Hussein - yes or no - and if you put no, the bodyguard took you to the jail,’’ said Ali Almoumineen, 38, who left Iraq with his wife and two children in 1999. He isn’t Kurdish, but found a home in the community nonetheless.

Kurdish expert Michael Gunter, a professor at Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville and author of six books on the people of Northern Iraq, said the Kurds who moved to Nashville were comforted by the anonymity of the Music City.

``You can sort of go about the business of becoming an American in Nashville easier than Washington, New York or California, where things are more politicized,’’ Gunter said. ``Many Kurds just wanted to start a new life and emphasize the private things - not keep fighting the public battles.’’

Though they found some peace in Nashville, the Iraqi immigrants, particularly the Kurds, never forgot their homeland.

In Osman’s shop, there is a map above the register that shows northern Iraq labeled ``Kurdistan,’’ a country that exists only in the hearts of the Kurds.

``We are small,’’ he said with a sigh. ``We don’t have any choice, even in the election, to show the people what we really want.’’