PARIS - A stand named after Kurdistan was featured at the Paris Book Fair on Sunday, marking the Kurdistan Region’s first participation in the international event that drew around one million visitors in three days.
"As the Kurdistan Region, we are participating in this international exhibition for the first time this year, which attracted about one million people in three days,” Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) representative to France Ali Dolamari told Rudaw.
“We wanted to participate as Kurds. We named [this stand] Kurdistan, because it not only pertains to the Kurdistan Region, but all four parts of Kurdistan,” he added.
“The relations of France and the Kurdistan Region are historical,” Dolamari said.
France and the Kurdistan Region enjoy long-standing ties, dating back to France’s support for the no-fly zone that enabled the Region to develop its current autonomy. France was among the first countries to open a consulate in Erbil after the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 and played a crucial role in supporting Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) in both Iraq and Syria.
“We wanted to present the works of the French authors and Kurdish authors, who are from the Kurdistan Region, Bakur [southeastern Turkey], Rojava [northeast Syria], who have written books in the French language, to French readers,” he said.
“The first day was dedicated to students. We saw many Kurdish students coming and crying when they saw the name of Kurdistan next to the names of countries,” Dolamari noted.
Staking Our Claim by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Masoud Barzani has “high demand,” according to Dolamari. The book recounts the events leading to the Kurdish independence referendum in September 2017 and the reactions it sparked in Iraq, the wider region, and the international community.
France played a key role in helping ease the Kurdistan Region’s international isolation after the referendum. At the time, President Emmanuel Macron praised Iraq’s then-Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for his “respect for the unity of Iraq, its territorial integrity, its stability, and the rejection of the referendum in the Kurdistan Region.”
The vote, held in September 2017, saw a landslide 92.73 percent in support of independence. Prior to the referendum, Macron had stated that France would never prevent any “democratic process,” but stressed the importance of maintaining Iraq’s stability.
Dolamari said that 12 writers joined the Kurdistan stand and signed books for readers. Among them was the renowned Kurdish author Hamit Bozarslan, who has published numerous books. His latest work, History of the Kurds: From the Origins to the Present Day, released on Thursday, was available at the stand.
