Freies Politikforum für Demokraten und Anarchisten

palestina libera · Beiträge: 1665

Two teams struggle to find an olive under one of the 11 cups displayed on a tray. The traditional game sin-u-serf (tray and cup in Kurdish) is only played during the Muslim fasting month. In one of Iraq’s most violent cities, it is nothing less than a challenge to death.

“Every night we block the entrance of the street with our vehicles to protect ourselves against car bombs and the like. There are also several policemen in plain clothes among us,” says Haukar, the owner of this teahouse in Kirkuk’s northern district Sorja. Around 50 have gathered here to play the game after ending the daylong fast.

Disputed by Arabs and Kurds, this oil rich city 230 km northwest Baghdad remains in limbo between control from Erbil, administrative capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq, and Baghdad.

http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/07/kirkuk-plays-dice-with-violence/