A flourishing Kurdistan?
Updated on 09 September 2006
A cheesy American promotional film is selling a vision of the new Iraq - from oil-rich Kurdistan.
A cheesy American promotional film is selling a vision of the new Iraq - from oil-rich Kurdistan.
>>Watch the report
Just propaganda, or a geniune good news story from Iraq? A cheesy American promotional film depicts an Iraqi Kurdistan that is flourishing.
Kurds, who make up a fifth of Iraq's population, have a language, history and culture of their own. And, thanks to the oilfields, the city Sulemaniyeh is developing fast.
The film claims that oil-rich Kurdistan is the future, and it works.
Indeed, it's a world away from the sectarian violence engulfing most of Iraq, but there are signs of the growing tension between Baghdad and the oil-rich Kurdish region.
First oppressed by Saddam, Kurds are now banned from flying a flag of their own, like the one pictured above; Iraq's prime minister has over-ruled Kurdish leaders and decreed that the Iraqi flag must be displayed 'on every inch of national soil'.
Related links
More Iraq reports
The Other Iraq website
