Parki Azadi

Fountain

Azadi Park is a huge public space in the heart of the city and takes its name Azadi or Freedom from the discovery of mass graves in the park after the fall of Saddam Hussein. Those buried there most likely came from Amna Suruka or the Red Fort where the Saddam regime imprisoned, tortured and murdered thousands of Kurds. A memorial remembered those who died lies at the heart of the park.

Memorial

By western standard it is a bit of a mess. I have come to the conclusion that Kurds have little experience and even less feel for recreational gardening. In a society torn apart by war for 100 years, there was little time and even less money for planting flowers or ornamental trees.



The park has the feeling of being designed by someone reading a book, but lacking any overall plan. Azadi Park has it all - formal gardens, trimmed hedges, wide lawns, ornamental ponds, a children's playground, an area for outdoor concerts and wide paths for an evening stroll. However, nothing seems to fit together and this is a tough climate for growing plants. Couch grass is everywhere and my heart went out to the elderly gardener trying to weed out the couch from a large flower bed.

Despite a huge workforce, so much is poorly maintained and they certainly have no expertise in pruning. The rose garden is weedy, the fountain doesn't work and is half dry, and many of the seats are broken. The park had lovely spreading Melia trees that were only just setting berries that have now been hacked back to bare trunks. Watering is done either by hand or by pouring water into shallow channels.

None of that bothers the locals who pack into the park on summer evenings to stroll or to attend one of the many events and concerts. 

In keeping with its graveyard tradition the recent deceased and much loved poet Sherko Bekas is now buried in the park.

Sherko Bekas Grave

The Rose Garden