Kurdistan 2 + 3

 

Kurdistan Players at the 2019 Norway Cup

Kurdistan does hold a special place in my heart, for sure. I have worked with the Kurdistan FA from 2014, when I convinced them to join CONIFA and play at the 2014 World Football Cup in Östersund. It was brilliant having them at the tournament and seeing a bunch Kurdish fans flocking into the stadium and dancing the day away with the players to support them, really. Ever since, I had a good relationship to their FA, which also sent a team to the following World Football Cup in Abkhazia in 2016. Though, during my time in CONIFA, I never managed to visit Kurdistan, actually.

So when I left CONIFA in 2020, visiting Kurdistan was one of the big things I missed out on. That said, I decided to just travel independently to the region in April of 2022, instead, when the pandemic allowed travelling again. It was quite a pricey flight, as I did not want to change planes in Istanbul, where the airport is named after a bomber pilot that actually bombed Kurdish village for most of her career (Sabiha Gökcen). It just didn't feel right. So I did get a direct flight on FlyErbil, the largest Kurdish airline, from Cologne straight to Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region in Iraq (also called "Kurdistan Bashur" in Kurdish, which means "Southern Kurdistan").

Now, I know what you are thinking: Isn't it dangerous? No, not really. Yes, there have been a few Turkish and Irani drone strikes in the region, but they mostly are in very remote mountain regions, far away from the larger cities and villages and its infrastructure. It is not perfectly safe, I guess, but it was absolutely fine to travel around with a bit of common sense. Even better, I was able to get a rental car and do a two week independent road trip around the region. And yes, going there is absolutely worth it. It is a stunning, very green and incredibly friendly part of the world and was arguably one of the best holidays I ever had.And it was a good excuse to wear my Kurdistan shirt, when visiting Gali Ali Beg, the most popular tourist site of the country. It is a waterfall in the mountains close to the Iran border that sees ten of thousands of tourist a year, mostly coming from Iraq. It is also printed on the Iraqi Dinar banknote.

Me at the Gali Ali Beg waterfall, holding up an Iraqi Dinar banknote showing the waterfall.

Anyways, we are to talk football shirt, not recollect travel memories: These shirts are the home and away shirts made by the local Araz & Bashdar brand that were produced around 2019. I could not find them for sale in Kurdistan in 2022, but A&B did sell a few online at the time, which is how I got mine for around 30€ each. As far as I am aware, these shirts have only been worn in the 2019 Norway Cup, in which Kurdistan regularly features. Due to the pandemic and a general downfall of CONIFA, there simply was no other opportunity to sport them since, I guess.