Much More on the Kurds Part 4

northern Iraq 1965

photographs and text © William Carter

 

Mullah Mustafa Barzani (right) with an assistant

Marching peshmergas getting directions from locals

Shepherds in spring: Kurds and their lands are distinct from others in the Middle East

Migrant shepherd family in spring

Relaxing in a village tea shop

Christian girl sheltering in a cave from Iraqi bombing

Mullah Mustafa Barzani during our last interview

Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.

Much More on the Kurds Part 3

northern Iraq 1965

photographs and text © William Carter

 

This Carter photograph was taken in Yemen, prior to William Carter’s visit to Kurdistan. Newly arrived Carter had been traveling in Yemen with veteran New York Times correspondent Dana Adams Schmidt, who told Carter about then little-known Kurdistan and who later helped him get there.

Kurdish villagers beside a well-used road in northern Iraq

Kurdish village, northern Iraq

Shepherd boy in spring

Spring religious ritual, near the Iraq-Iran border

Spring religious ritual, near the Iran-Iraq border

Sorting grain on a rooftop

Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.

Much More on the Kurds Part 2

northern Iraq 1965

photographs and text © William Carter

 

Morning in Kurdistan

Native Ibex from Kurdish area of eastern Iraq or western Iran

Conference between locals and peshmerga commanders

Burial of an executed “josh” (“donkey” or Iraqi government spy)

Kurdish graveyard

Peshmergas enjoying home hospitality in village north of Suleimaniya

Peshmerga platoon on the march

Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.

Much More on the Kurds Part 1

northern Iraq 1965

photographs and text © William Carter

 

Because there’s been such a huge response to my Kurdish blogs (including a speaking request in California), I dug deeper and found more images from my trip to their mountain homeland in June 1965.
The figure at left is legendary leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani, father of the current President of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani.

(By the way, I received several requests that I call it simply “Kurdistan,” not “Iraqi Kurdistan.” Well, that request is thick with politics. Suffice it to say I am an American, and my country is a member of NATO, which includes Turkey, whose southeast corner has an overwhelmingly large Kurdish population. Yet in my heart I am thrilled that the U.S. military and the Kurdish peshmerga fighters are working shoulder to shoulder these days–in a part of the world where trust is always in short supply)

More than 50 years ago, the day I was saying goodbye to Mullah Mustafa, we shook hands, and he said, “Please help us in America.” Through the translator I replied, “America is a big ocean, and I only have a small cup.”

Everyone laughed.

A few days later, when I rode away on a donkey, east toward the Iranian border, my peshmerga hosts lined themselves along the brow of a hill, waving for a while, then just standing there and watching me go, for nearly an hour, until I dropped out of sight.

Not, though, out of mind.

Copyright statement: William Carter papers, © Stanford University Libraries. Click here for a detailed usage guide.