Erbil, Kurdistan
At the Citadel of Erbil, I am with the first female General of the Peshmerga's Marine Corps. She served 10 years of her life fighting the living before the Zombie War and the dead. She is Canan Hesso.
I was born and raised in Erbil. I grew before the American intervention when he oppressed us. I was 14 when the Americans invaded Iraq. At first a good portion of our population were skeptical of any change happening since the 1990's when Sadam stayed in power after the previous US invasion. This skepticism ended when a year passed and a number of coalition missions, the economy improving over the Arabs in our country who oppressed us. I joined the Peshmerga when I was 16, it was a dream of mine, before the great panic happened. During that time we did normal patrols when the Israelis announced their voluntary quarantine. We didn't care, Israel was just another iffy thing for us because they weren't well liked by the Arabs, but considered them oppressors for their treatment of the Palestinians. We were neutral. Life went on until two days later when we also decided to put the region under voluntary quarantine. At first we were shocked. Why were we following the Israelis example, we weren't even recognized as a country.
So how was a quarantine enforced?
Discretly. Very Discretly. Copies of the Warnberg-Knight report were spread throughout the Kurdish territories. To check the territorieties for infected a male and female would pose as a couple walking a dog that can smell the virus.
Did you find any infected before the Great Panic?
In the large cities we would find some weekly, but in the villages it was one or two a month.
What about the Iraqi government at the time?
The government in Baghdad demanded we stop spreading Israeli propaganda, while the United States said they would handle it. Before the Panic the US Alpha teams took care of much of the outbreak.
Then the panic hit?
Yes, the US pulled out of the country and eventually the government in Baghdad fell. We were on our own. Refugees were piling in to our territory. We managed to gain Kurdish territory in Syria after the Syrian government fell, but we were still overwhelmed with everything. We were quickly running out of food to the point or rationing. The refugees were coming in droves also didn't help. We had enough troops… okay more than we needed! When Iran and Pakistan launched nuclear weapons our food supply decreased even more.
You were relying on Iran or Pakistan?
Not the countries' governments… Iran in particular has a large dislike towards us and Pakistan wouldn't want to interfere in foreign affairs as they were too busy passing over Indians trying to get to safety.
So you made pleads to Armenia and Georgia?
No Georgia was stubborn and Armenia came to us.
How?
Through our associates in Turkey, or what was a part of Turkey, or what was a part of Turkey, much of the Kurdish regions in Turkey were becoming independent and were about to join us. Armenia needed soldiers to guard their farms, and we needed food. Our leaders made a treaty. This would be the first act of the country of Kurdistan.
Canan Hesso part 1 end
