KIRKUK,
Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – A group of artists in the province of Kirkuk
have erected a giant statue of Peshmerga fighter as a sign of appreciation for
the Kurdish force protecting the people of the area from Islamic State (IS)
attacks.
“The
statue is 14 meters broad and 21 meters high so far. The height might reach
over 23 meters once we put the Kurdistan flag,” Barzan Ahmed, the spokesperson
for the six Kirkuk artists responsible for creating the statue, told
Kurdistan24 on Tuesday.
Ahmed
said they began working on the statue two years ago and expect to finish it
later in this month.
The
statue is located near the gate to Kirkuk province in the north, on the main
road to Erbil. It is the biggest figure of a soldier to be built in the Middle
East.
Saman,
one of the leading artists and project supervisor, told Kurdistan24 that it
would take ten more days to complete the statue, working nine hours a day.
He
explained the monument is robust and made mostly from cement and iron.
“This
statue is a symbol of the Peshmerga’s bravery. We are entirely indebted to what
the Peshmerga have done to protect all the people of Kirkuk, regardless of
their ethnicity and religious background,” Saman said.
“The
Peshmerga are ready to sacrifice their lives to protect us. This statue is our
small gesture, dedicated to the Peshmerga as a sign of appreciation and respect
from the people of Kirkuk,” he added.
The
statue is expected to be officially unveiled at a special ceremony later in
July.
Kirkuk
is an oil-rich province located in the south of the Kurdistan Region and
northern Iraq.
Although
Kurds make up the majority of the population there, the province is home to
various ethnic and religious groups including Turkmen, Arabs, and Christians.
The
province was under the protection and administration of the federal government
of Iraq before, but following the emergence of IS in northern Iraq in June
2014, Iraqi soldiers fled and left the province defenseless.
Since
then, Kirkuk has been under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG) and protected by the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.
Kirkuk
has been a strategic location for IS, and they have carried out dozens of
large-scale attacks, but have failed to cross Peshmerga defense lines and
occupy any territory, Hawija city being the only exception, a Sunni
Arab-populated area located in the west of Kirkuk.
