The historic monument of “Mrwari Rash,” or “the black pearl,” in the Sargallu village in Sulaimani province, Iraqi Kurdistan, August 2019. Photo: Screengrab/Rudaw TV
SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,—A Kurdish businessman is building a historic monument in the province of Sulaimani that depicts historical Kurdish events over the past century.
Zahiri Karima Rash built the monument called “Mrwari Rash,” or “the black pearl,” to pay homage to Kurdistan’s history.
“All Kurdish events will be inscribed on these rocks with details of the events to facilitate research into Kurdish endeavors and revolutions,” Karima Rash told Rudaw. “This rock-made book will remain forever. It will hopefully never be ruined by the hatred or opposition of anyone.”
The monument is in the village of Sargallu, and was built using 85 tons of rock and has cost more than $2 million, according to Rash. Construction has finished, and the structure is now awaiting inscriptions of the history.
The building took six years to finish, and the rocks have been brought from 14 villages. The monument will portray early Kurdish uprisings against the Iraqi state in the 20th century to the emergence of the Islamic State (ISIS).
Rash, who funded the project himself, said he had a patriotic obligation to build the monument.
“I undertook this project as a national duty,” he said
One example of an event to be depicted on the monument is the establishment of the Republic of Mahabad in Iran in 1946. This was a self-governing republic declared by Kurdish nationalists that lasted less than a year.
Other examples include somber and more well-known events like the Halabja chemical attack in 1988. At the end of the Iran-Iraq war, former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ordered a gas attack against the Kurdish city.
The monument will also depict the Kurdish uprising of 1991, when people rose up against Hussein and expelled Iraqi forces from the Erbil, Duhok, and Sulaimani provinces, leading to the autonomy the Kurdistan Region has today.
The monument will not engage in politics as the history is added to it.
“In writing the history of the revolutions, we will neither defend nor write against any party,” said Rash.
The monument will be free, but Rash did not specify when it will be finished.
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