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Several Kurds from Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria gathered Sunday in Dongnimmun Park in central Seoul to promote the creation ofan independent Kurdish state. A man identified as Shala, who came to Korean seven years ago from Iran, said that with the Hussein regime finished, this was the perfect opportunity for the Kurds to finish "living on rented land for 4,000 years."
Kurds, numbering 30 million scattered throughout many nations, represent the world's largest ethnic group without their own sovereign state. More than 1,000 Kurds live in Korea. Most came five or six years ago to flee persecution and economic hardships in the Middle East, and most are here illegally. Shala said that ethnic Kurds of all nationalities feel connected in a very real way.
The Kurds who met in Dongnimmun Park were steeped with hope that they would get their own country. A man identified as Merisham, an Iraqi Kurd who came to Korea in 1995 as a political refugee, said that he hoped that many Koreans would understand and support their goal.
(Lee Gyeong-eun, diva@chosun.com )
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