Kurdistan's haven of safety Erbil now fears the threat of the Islamic State

The ancient 6,000-year-old Citidel sits proudly in the heart of Erbil, as trade circles around it and people bustle by. The smell of spices mix with the soft tumbling sound of the impressive city centre fountains in the air. During summer months, the centre typically attracts tourists from around the world who come to see the citadel and mingle around the cool air of the fountains, eating ice cream and enjoying the unique culture of Erbil. This year however, instead of tourists, hotels are filled with refugees, and on the streets, the Kurdish Peshmerga army is highly visible, patrolling every corner of the city.

The atmosphere is tense.

Erbil is the capital of the Kurdish Autonomous Region (KRG) in Iraq and has been regarded for years as one of the safest cities in the turbulent country. However, with recent developments, that title seems to be at risk. The city now has a heavy armed police presence, and Peshmerga units are deployed in the city. Heavily armed trucks and groups of military forces have become the norm in the usually quiet city.

With the Islamic State – the militant Sunni extremist group vying to create a caliphate in the Levant – making sweeping gains over the past week and pushing the Peshmerga back into the KRG, tensions are now high in Erbil.

The Kurdish government seems to be aware of people’s fears. Last week, after heavy territorial loses in the city of Qaraqosh and the evacuation of 5,000 people from one of this conflict’s first refugee camps, rumours of Peshmerga retreats began to spread rapidly. To get ahead of the rumours and calm citizens, the KRG shut down social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for several days.

Some local families still fled the city within the past week however, concerned about the rising violence and advancing Islamic State militants, and fearing Erbil will become the next target of car bombs—a tactic the Islamic State has used in other cities, such as Kirkuk and Baghdad, where they have been unable to gain control.

“A few families left to Shaqlawa, about an hour from here, they were scared that the violence would come to Erbil,” Davide, a Swedish Kurd who lives in Erbil told MEMO. “A lot of people are worried about there being ISIS spies in the city already, and that soon there will be bombs in the city like in Baghdad.”

However with United States airstrikes now in effect against Islamic State positions outside of Erbil, the militants’ rapid advance, which managed to come within 20 miles of the city, has been halted. Families that fled are beginning to return, although the fear of bombs is still prevalent.

Police cars now roam the streets of Erbil with guns pointed out of half wound down windows. Weary Peshmerga soldiers, some recently returned from frontline battles with Islamic State militants, can be seen on the back of armed pickup trucks up and down the city’s major roads. The belief that the Islamic State could infiltrate the city is apparent.

Anti-Arab sentiments

With the Islamic State making gains across Iraq’s Nineveh plains, Kurdistan, particularly Erbil, has recently seen a heavy influx of Iraqi refugees, putting a strain on both the Kurdish government and the residents of the KRG, who have historically been subjected to persecution at the hands of their Arab neighbours.

Last week, this strain came to a boiling point when hundreds gathered to hold an anti-Arab march, directing hate towards refugees who have sought safety in Erbil from the Islamic State, accusing them of infiltrating the KRG as spies for the extremist militants.

“We are out here to begin a revolution, to get the Arabs out of Kurdistan,” Fadi Azzez-mousa, one of the protesters said. “Kurdistan is for Kurds, and the Arabs must leave because they all work with ISIS.”

The young Kurds, which made up the bulk of the protest, expressed fears that most Arabs were acting as Islamic State spies within the city, and called for the expulsion of all Arabs from Kurdistan, rhetoric that has recently been mirrored by more radical politicians and pundits on Kurdish news stations.

As the protest continued, the atmosphere turned violent. Protesters set up makeshift checkpoints inspecting cars that went by for Arab drivers or passengers. When a car was identified as Arab, young men ran screaming towards it, throwing punches towards the hood, while throwing drinks and lit cigarettes through any open windows.

Protesters were defiant that they would push Arabs out of the Kurdish held areas, including refugees who had fled the Islamic State.

While fears over Islamic State tactics such as car bombs or suicide bombers in Erbil are seen as legitimate by the majority of the population, fears over the burgeoning refugee population are not. Several residents and police officers expressed their disgust to MEMO about the anti-Arab protest, which although in the hundreds, was much smaller in comparison to other protests that have sprung up in the past few days as the atmosphere, in the previously quiet Erbil, has dramatically shifted.

The majority of residents however remain defiant despite the risks, throwing their weight behind the Peshmerga and their ability to keep Erbil safe. Yasir Goran, a former Peshmerga soldier, who spoke to MEMO on a street parallel to the iconic citadel, mustered a crowd who cheered and clapped his every word as he spoke of his belief that despite the safety of the KRG and Erbil being threatened, the city would remain standing and the Peshmerga would defend the Kurdish people.

“We have to save our county,” Goran said. “I am telling all the people in Erbil everyone must have a gun and save our land. These are dangerous people, because these people are distorting Islam, they are not Islam, they are not Muslim. They are coming from all over the world, they have destroyed Iraq and Syria. But we believe in our Peshmerga, they will stop ISIS, and Kurdistan and this city will be safe.”