Kurdish town honors its dead Peshmerga with poster

RANIYA, Kurdistan Region - Giant images of Kurdish soldiers in Peshmerga uniforms are displayed on sidewalks and main streets of this bordering city of Raniya in the northeastern corner of the Kurdistan region, about 200 kilometers from Erbil.

Some are larger than the others, others more colorful. But they all have two things in common: these are Kurdish soldiers who gave their lives in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS) , and they are all from Raniya.

“I am glad to see the photograph of my father placed here at the gate of the city. It is important to know that this land was defended with blood,” says Hallo Doshka, about the poster of his father, Nariman, who was killed in one of the clashes with ISIS militants last year.

Hallo says the posters are significant not only for his family but also for the city they came from. It is, after all, the city’s history, he says.

Though Raniya is considered a small city with an estimated 100,000 people, yet the sheer number of posters shows the size of the sacrifice the city has made in an onging war that has already raged for a year-and-half.

Nearly 1,500 Peshmerga soldiers have been killed since the war started in August 2014. The number of civilians killed is still not fully known, since many families have fled the violence to different places in the country and available data about their losses are limited.

“My husband was killed in the township of Daqoq, but his body was never found. I am glad to see his poster here with the rest of the martyrs,” says Parween Qadir, who still hopes to find the remains of hes husband someday.

The ministry of Peshmerga, however, has plans to build one monument for all the fallen soldiers. It says that will represent all those who gave their lives and will remain for future generations.

“We have no means to make the monument now because of the economic crisis but that is our plan,” says Hazhar Margayi, a spokesman at the ministry.

Margayi said the current posters were made by the relatives of the victims and locals who funded the project.

“I have made nearly 25 posters on my own of people who all came from my own home village of Hajiawa,” says Rebin Mawlood.

“This was my way to pay my respect to the martyrs,” he says.