9. Dupre
Dupre, Iraqi Kurdistan
2017
Giclée prints, photos, frames, wall hanging, stone, wooden bench, stone, carpets, tasbih
Dimensions variable
NFS
In the Nahla Valley of northern Iraq, close to the Turkish border, lies two close villages - Dupre and Kashkawa. Dupre is a Muslim village and Kashkawa is a Christian Assyrian village. Over at the last decade, these villages (like many others in the border regions) have been bombed by the Turkish air force on numerous occasions. Both the Turkish and Iranian governments use the bombing of villages to pressure locals to ‘force out’ PKK and other Kurdish militants groups from their bases in the surrounding mountain ranges. This is a strategy which doesn’t work and leaves civilians in vulnerable communities powerless between two warring parties.
On 3 September 2016, four Turkish warplanes flew over Dupre and dropped 8 bombs setting the fields surrounding the village ablaze. Months earlier in May, the Turkish military bombed the edge of the village causing extensive fragmentation damage to houses and numerous livestock deaths.
The residents of Dupre and Kashkawa have keys to homes in each others villages so they shelter safely nearby when their own village is under attack. A powerful story of interfaith support and unity in the region.
1. Wall hanging of the 112th surah of the Quran - Surah al-Ikhlas
2. Inhabitants of Dupre speak of their experiences living in the village as well as living under threat of aerial bombings.
3. 1980s images of Peshmerga from the region surrounding Dupre.
4. Portrait of Akleema. She spoke strongly of the difficulties of living in village and expressed a desire to want to move to Europe. She refused to have her opinions censored or 'watered down' by others in the village.
5. Fars with his tasbih (prayer beads).
6. Bomb fragments of ordnance dropped on the village by Turkish military airplanes.
7. Fragmentation damage to home in Dupre as a result of air strikes.