Ask a Kurd from Başûr which is the real capital and you’ll start a friendly argument. Officially it’s Hewlêr, Erbil, the seat of the Kurdistan Regional Government, with its ministries, parliament, international airport and the citadel that has been lived in, without a break, for more than six thousand years. Emotionally, for many, it’s Silêmanî, Sulaymaniyah, the city of poets, founded in 1784, which has spent two centuries producing the writers, singers and thinkers that define Sorani Kurdish culture.
Hewlêr
Start at the citadel, restored over the last decade and now a UNESCO World Heritage site, and walk down into the Qaysari bazaar for tea, spices and the honey-and-walnut sweets the city is known for. Beyond the old centre the skyline is new: towers, malls, the Kurdistan Parliament, and neighbourhoods that have grown with the Region’s oil economy since 2003. Hewlêr is also the meeting place of Kurds from all four parts, you will hear Kurmanji, Sorani, Turkish, Persian and Arabic in one café.
Silêmanî
Silêmanî is greener, hillier and prouder of its culture. The Amna Suraka museum, Saddam’s former security headquarters, kept as it was, tells the story of the Anfal years. Azadî Park, the Salim Street cafés and the bazaar’s book market fill up every evening. The graves of the poets Nalî, Piramerd and Sherko Bekas are places of pilgrimage. The city is also the home of Kurdish alternative music, from classic singers like Ali Merdan to today’s rock and hip-hop scene.
Halabja and the mountains
An hour east lies Helebce, where a chemical attack killed five thousand people on 16 March 1988; the monument there is one of the most moving places in Kurdistan. North of both cities the mountains of Rawanduz, Barzan and Hewraman offer the landscapes, waterfalls, gorges, high pastures, that make Başûr an increasingly popular destination for Kurds from the diaspora returning each summer.