Changing the
small things-Iraqi
Kurdistan CPT training

(…) The
moment arrived and
supper was hot. The
trainees began to enter
the CPT house-the eager,
excited, laughing new
CPT trainees.

This training is unique
to any I have attended
or facilitated in the
six years since I joined
CPT. There are ten
trainees: one from
Poland, one from
Colombia and eight from
Kurdistan-Iraq and
Syria. It is a
multi-faith group:
Christian, Muslim,
seeking and those that
have a deep spirituality
but who do not identify
with a specific
organised faith.

Most of the trainee’s
lives have been directly
impacted by the violence
in the region. We heard
several times on the
first day indications of
this. One person asked
permission to keep his
phone on with the tone
turned off. His father
was heading to the front
line and he needed to
aware of when that would
happen. Others spoke of
people they have lost
due to separation or
death due to the war
that is happening
throughout their
countries.

Our
first role play
where they simulated
walking alongside
farmers

in
Hebron who were
harvesting olives.

One of our
first spontaneous
activities was to attend
a vigil to remember and
grieve for the 58 people
including 25 Iraqi Kurds
who drowned in the
Aegean Sea last week.
These are the things we
had to process on our
second day of training.

This week we
began to work on the
module where they plan a
public action. They
agreed to a topic that
faces a small bit of the
oppression that is
happening in this
region. The trainees had
to think hard of ways to
get the message across
in a way that would not
endanger any of them.
They knew that arrest in
this country can bring
with it beatings and,
for some of them,
deportation back to a
war-torn country. Yet,
they also knew that it
is very important to
speak to the powers that
are causing the
oppression. The
consensus came down to a
simple message with a
subversive undertone.
This week they will
continue the planning to
bring about the action
next Friday.

One morning, as I ate
breakfast with Jahne who
is from Rojava (Syrian
Kurdistan) she said, “
The reason I want to be
a part of CPT is that
CPT works to change the
small things. I can not
change the war, or the
government in my country
but I can change the
small things. That is
what CPT does.”

Te read
the full version of
the article, click
here:
https://goinpeacenottopieces

Protest
against violating a
freedom of speech

28th of February, two
CPTers accepted a request
to accompany a group of sixteen
activists from Rania,
Hawler and Sulaimani
who were showing
solidarity to an officer
from Rania who is
currently in jail. The
officer was arrested by
the authorities for
showing his anger on a
public video on Facebook.

The
imprisoned officer,
Lieutenant Faramosh, is a
traffic police officer
from Rania.
In the last two weeks he
has been involved in a
strike with his fellow
employees asking the
government to pay their
salaries for the last 3
months.

Three
TV stations NRT, KNN and
REGA, reported about this
action. After the action
finished the activists
went to see Faramosh in
the prison to tell him
he is not alone.

CPT learned that
Lieutenant Faramosh was
released from prison
a few days ago.