Voices and Views from Iraqi Kurdistan November 2025

 By Weldon D. Nisly, CPT (Community Peacemaker Teams) Iraqi Kurdistan team; Sunday, November 2, 2025; reprinted with permission

At the beginning of October, I returned to the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan (IK) team in Sulamaniyah (also called Sulaimani or Slemani or Suli) in the eastern Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). My one-time short-term return to the team, where I served half-time from 2017-22, was primarily to co-lead the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan delegation from Oct 8-22, with Kurdish teammate Runak. Another Kurdish teammate Kamaran also helped lead this delegation, especially our 6 days of travel across Kurdistan. Another CPT IK team member, Julian also provided invaluable assistance by making numerous trips to the airport for arrival and departure of delegation members. Most flights at Sulaymaniyah International Airport arrive and depart between 1:00 and 5:00 a.m.

L to R: Julian, Runak, Weldon, Kamaran enjoying dinner at the Rashmal Restaurant
after my arrival on October 2.

After nearly 2 decades in a house on the edge of Suli, the new CPT home is on the 8^th floor of a 22-story apartment building on the edge of Azadi Park near central Suli. Azadi is the Kurdish word for freedom. Ater becoming a semi-autonomous region of Iraq in the 1990s, The Kurdish people transformed the Iraqi military base in Sulaymaniyah into a park celebrating freedom from Saddam Hussein’s oppressive genocidal reign. It is a gathering place for family picnics, drinking tea, playing games, and monuments to Kurdish heroes and martyrs.

                                                    

Azadi Park view from 8^th floor                     Azadi Park from CPT balcony

of CPT home in Park Tower                                                               

Suli at night from CPT balcony                                         Sunset over Suli from CPT balcony

 

 Eleven people joined this delegation coming from Kurdistan, Spain, and the U.S. It was our first delegation since June 2022, which I also co-led with Runak and CPT IK teammates. One of our all-time largest delegations, the 11 people ranging in age from early 20s to late 60s, brought considerable global experience to Kurdistan.

The delegation met with Halwest Karim, the Director of the Azadbun organization in Sulaymaniyah. She shared about their work on climate change and environmental justice in Kurdistan and Iraq.

CPT Delegation:
front L to R: Bahar Mohammad, Lina Hervas, Halwest Karim the Azadbun director, Consuela Nunez Fernandes, Maria Taylor
back L to R: David Leaman, Chris Burfiend, Sarah Klaassen, Chloe Kennedy, David Blair, Weldon, Nathan Perrin, Kamaran Osman, Christian Taylor

 

 

    

 

Azadi Park monument naming journalists      Sardasht Othman, a 22 year-old journalist
killed each year since 2003, when the US       student was abducted from his university  
invaded Iraq in the War OF Terror and            on May 4, 2010. A couple of days later his
succeeding political regime seeking to            brutalized body was dumped on a street
silence voices who expose their political         in Mosul. On May 5 each year his family,     
corruption and oppression. From 2003           friends, journalists, and the CPT IK team
to 2024, 526 journalists were killed and         gather at his grave to remember him.
have their names on this monument.             Sardasht’s name is next to last under 2010.

One May 5^th, Runak, Kamaran, and I joined this memorial with our Kurdish journalist
friend Niyaz Abdullah. Later, CPT helped her escape threats on her life and go into exile.                                                                                               
   
May 5,2019 graveside ceremony for Sardasht Othman (large photo in background)
with his mother, father, and 3 brothers. Kamaran and I spoke at this memorial service.

CPT Iraqi Kurdistan Team given Tulip Human Rights Award by The Netherlands

A year ago, in November 2024, The Netherlands awarded the CPT Iraqi Kurdistan team with their annual International Tulip Human Rights Award. The award included a Tulip sculpture plus 100,000 Euros (approx $104,000), which the IK team is using for various special projects, including training investigative journalists about human rights abuses and working with a trauma psychologist interviewing people traumatized by war.   

 
Tulip Human Rights Award from                         Kamaran giving Tulip Award speech in a
The Netherlands                                                    in Tulip Award ceremony in The Netherlands
                                                                                 Embassy in Baghdad on February 18,2025.

In her address, Ambassador Janet Alberda of the Netherlands emphasized that CPT's nomination for this prestigious award was due to their unwavering commitment to protecting human rights and fostering peace in the complex environment of Iraqi Kurdistan. She praised CPT for earning the trust of local communities and for their professional documentation of human rights violations.

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Remember and embody this peaceful wisdom from a brilliant and resilient Palestinian:
"Non-violence requires global non-silence."
Palestinian journalist analyst Muhammed Shehada to Peter Beinart, 10/26/25.

 

CPT Delegation meets CPT IK Partner Kak Bapir

Kak Bapir, Muhktar (mayor) of Basta village in eastern Iraqi Kurdistan, was one of the first village leaders to partner with CPT after the team left Baghdad in 2006 and went to the Kurdistan Region of Iraq later that year. He was the first village leader I met when I joined the CPT IK team in 2017.

On October 13, Kak Bapir hitchhiked a couple of hours down the mountain from Basta village to the city of Qaladze, to meet with our delegation.

As a Kurd and a Muslim, Kak Bapir is devoted to peace. He once stood between two warring military forces and told them that if they are going to shoot each other they have to kill him first. But if they lay down their weapons, his family and village will prepare a feast of lamb for them to eat together. On that occasion they chose to lay down their weapons and eat the feast!  

   

Kak Bapir (center) speaking to delegation           I was delighted see Kak Bapir again!  

My 6 weeks on the CPT IK team with the delegation and since have been very full and rewarding! I am helping the team this week as a new team member arrives and joins the team. I leave to return home one week, on Sunday, November 9. I will share more stories and analyses after I am home and have had time to process all whom I have encountered here in Kurdistan again.

Together in Peace, Weldon 

Weldon Nisly grew up on an Iowa farm near Kalona. Married with 2 children and 4 grandchildren all living in Seattle area. Studied economics and political science at University of Iowa and did political organizing (1966-73). MA Peace Studies Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (1975-77). Mennonite Central Committee peace and justice ministry (1977-82). Pastor Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship (1984-95) and Seattle Mennonite Church (1995-2013). Serving half-time with Christian (now Community) Peacemaker Teams on the Iraqi Kurdistan and Palestine teams since 2017. Committed to contemplative spiritual disciplines and Just Peacebuilding.