VISIT THE NEW IRAQ (continued, part 4) The next day I again went out. By taxi I crossed a big part of Kurdistan, to reach the city of Sulaimaniya, which is often called the most modern and "Western" city in Iraq, which, in addition, the size is roughly the same as my hometown in Canada. On the way to one of the crossroads we turned right, toward Mosul (one of those dangerous cities, which is off limits to tourists), instead, according to the index, go to Sulaymaniyah. My heart start beating wildly. In my plans were to stay alive after a visit to Iraq. But, to my relief, about 20 kilometers from Mosul, at the next intersection, we turned to where we needed. Kurdish landscape on the way we often stopped at checkpoints, where armed soldiers of the Army Peshmerga (Kurdish military forces), check our car. One time I even asked to leave the car. I was with a camera, guidebook and sunglasses, I tried as much as possible like an ordinary tourist. Huge soldiers searched my bag and checked the passport, came very close and towering over me, while other soldiers stood behind him in the side of me. He twisted my passport in hand, he apparently did not read in English, and asking me questions about my trip. I thought that they were just wondering who I am and where I am going, but still I am more than confident that the great soldier just wanted to boast about their knowledge of English before his colleagues because he translated my answers to them. He looked in my guidebook and was surprised that there was a map of Kurdistan. After all, he with a broad smile off his glasses and said: "Welcome to Kurdistan. Have a nice trip. " Closer to Sulaymaniyah, we drove very close to Kirkuk, the second a dangerous city, where I did not want. Highway just skirted the city, I looked over the rooftops, and I was not myself - those cities we used to see in the news, but not in real life. Museum of Amn-Surak fate was not too good with the Kurds: they harassed the Turkish government during the Iran-Iraq war, they were between two fires, and in the end, Saddam is now perpetrate genocide, having arranged in the town of Halabja gas attack, which in an instant killed 5,000 Kurds. 182,000 pieces in 1991, soldiers of the Kurdish Peshmerga army attacked and captured Amn-Surak, the center of Iraqi intelligence in Sulaimaniya, where they were held and tortured thousands of Kurds. Today this place is open to visitors and turned into an open air museum where you can see tanks, instruments of torture, prison cells and the facades of buildings, covered with bullet holes. As soon as I entered the gate of the museum, the guard began to look for clues. Me put a guide who was to accompany me on the museum grounds and explain what is depicted in numerous photographs, which cover the walls. But these pictures have not tried anything to hide. They are very colorful and scary. In contrast to the ambiguous turns of speech enjoyed by the media, they told the whole truth about the war. The tour ends in a long corridor, which is decorated with a mosaic of 182 thousand shards of glass. One fragment represents the life of a Kurd who was killed during Saddam's reign. This track light 5000 light bulbs, one for each destroyed Kurdish villages. Start material: Completion of material:
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