WLadimir: “We both love hiking in the mountains. Our first date was a mountain walk.” Bokan: “That is why we always say that our love started in the mountains.” Wladimir: “As they say about Kurds: they have only one friend, the mountains. Since high school I have been fascinated by the Kurds, which I also wrote a profile paper about. I am now also speaking two Kurdish dialects. Kurds are a people without land, 45 million people who live across the Middle East: in Iraq, Turkey and partly in Europe.”
Bokan: “We live in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan: the part of Iraq where Kurds live. We have our own government, but there is always a lot of tension with the national government in Baghdad. It is a city of one million inhabitants, we see the snow -covered mountain tops in the distance.”
Wladimir: “There are many cafes, restaurants and hotels in Erbil. It is very lively and social. People always go out. They go to one Mazra’aa country house, with the whole family. There is a very large park, a thousand year old citadel and a bazaar in the city. There are museums, mosques and Christian churches. In the summer it can be very hot in Erbil. It is now 44 degrees. Sometimes it is 48 degrees. “
Bokan: “I was born here. I have recently started a restaurant here in the Christian neighborhood of the city. There is live music almost every night. And dance. I designed the restaurant itself. The walls are covered with stones that we have taken from the mountains. The seats are of the best wood.”
Wladimir: “The restaurant Le Daff is named after the traditional Kurdish hand drum, the Daff. We also donate alcohol, while alcohol is forbidden in Baghdad. Kurdistan is more liberal than the rest of Iraq.”
Bokan: “I also have a pharmacy. I have people working for myself. I have only had the restaurant for a year. And we have had a child for five months, our daughter Kevok.”
Wladimir: “Kevok is the Kurdish word for pigeon.” Ez Kevok im “(I am a pigeon) is also a popular song, among others sung by the Kurdish singer Aynur, who now lives in the Netherlands.”
Bokan: “I gave birth in the Netherlands because health care is better in the Netherlands. They always do a caesarean section here and I didn’t want that. That leaves a big scar. And that can be infected. But I would not want to live in the Netherlands. I love my country, also of nature here.”
Wladimir: “Some of our customers in the restaurant consists of expats. We also have a library in the restaurant, Hollands Porcelain and bitterballen. Sometimes we watch football matches with the Dutch consulate.”
Bokan: “My daily routine? It is currently destroyed! I am no longer going to the gym or mountains. That is really for us piglistthat we can’t hike now. I still have a big belly of pregnancy. But Wladimir’s mother now comes to live with us, she is 85. She is still fit and can do a lot. We recently spent the night with her in a mountain hut. “
Frontlines
Wladimir: “I work at the Kurdistan Chroniclean English magazine about Kurdish culture, sports and politics. I also write as a journalist for international media and Think Tanks. I wrote two books about Kurds in Syria. During the war against IS from 2014 to 2019, I worked as a reporter along the front lines in Iraqi Kurdistan and Northeast Syria. ”
Bokan: “At that time, then Erbil threatened to attack, the women in my family decided to also pick up the weapons. But luckily it didn’t happen. The US was the attack due to air strikes.”
Wladimir: “In 2016 I ended up in an IS attack at Bashiqa, while I embedded was with a team of foreign medical volunteers. Many Kurdish fighters were injured and we were shot at from all sides. Then I decided to leave the front and go back to Erbil, but I continued to report on the war. And lately, with the baby, it is of course difficult to go out for reports. A newborn requires attention. ”
Bokan: “I am with the baby during the day, but in the evening I work in the restaurant.”
Work online
Wladimir: “I can work online so I am currently staying at home with the baby. In between I also clean the house because we have no worker at the moment.”
Bokan: “Often I only come home from the restaurant at three o’clock in the morning, because especially if there has been live music, the people will stick for a long time afterwards. So we get up late: at 10, 11 or even 12 hours. Then we have breakfast and I will order medicines for my pharmacy. I walk all afternoon with the pharmacy and the restaurant to arrange things. I go to the restaurant.”
Wladimir: “We work at least 10 hours a day, seven days a week. So 70 to 80 hours a week.”
Bokan: “Wladimir is always working on his laptop. I sometimes say: he has two women – the first is his laptop, I am the second! Even on our honeymoon to the Maldives he still had his laptop with him.”
Wladimir: “As a journalist, I can’t always keep office hours. Sometimes there is Breaking Newsas there were earthquakes here in which thousands of people died. Even in Erbil the quakes could be felt and we had to flee our apartment. ”
Bokan: “I used to go to the gym every day and we often went hiking at the weekend. In the evening we went out. It doesn’t happen anymore, because we are so busy with the restaurant and the baby.”
Wladimir: “I am now also doing the PR of the restaurant. And we are now finding a manager for the restaurant. So that Bokan can get her old life back somewhat.”