UK Consulate-General hosts Remembrance Sunday in Erbil
“We were also very keen this year to make the service more inclusive. We also included a verse from the holy Quran and... for the first time found a poem that is very well known among the Kurds (Abdulla Pashew - The Unknown Soldier).”
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The United Kingdom Consulate-General in Erbil hosted Remembrance Sunday today to honor military and civilian servicemembers, with members of the US-led coalition against ISIS, diplomats, and Kurdish Peshmerga officials in attendance.
Attendees were wearing Remembrance Poppies. One of the only plants seen growing on largely barren areas after World War I battles on the Western Front, the red poppy has been worn to commemorate servicemembers in several countries, including the UK.
The poppy appeal has also become synonymous with the Royal British Legion, a UK charity for veterans.
“This charity was designed to commemorate the end of the First World War, now over 100 years ago, and since that time many countries have held ceremonies such as the one we are having today,” said the United Kingdom’s Consul General to Erbil, David Hunt, during the ceremony.
“There are so many nations, religions represented here today, this service acknowledges the great traditions of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq: the tolerance, the diversity, to commemorate all of those, all nations who paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom and for security, but in particular today we commemorate the men and women of the British armed forces, the Commonwealth, the US-led coalition and our brave allies, the Peshmerga.”
UK Colonel Charles Sykes, the Special Defense Advisor for the Peshmerga ministry, told Kurdistan 24 that the remembrance ceremony started after the First World War about 100 years ago.
“There was a huge number of war dead and it was a huge shock to the British nation and the Commonwealth nations and all of the allies and the remembrance service came out of that,” he said. “We wear paper poppies every year for the Remembrance.”
He also explained, however, that Remembrance Sunday has since expanded to remember the dead from other conflicts.
“It’s therefore an opportunity for us and a great privilege to host the ceremony here in Erbil. We have ceremonies around the globe in embassies and consulates, but this is my first time hosting a ceremony in Erbil.”
Colonel Sykes added he was very impressed by the turnout of religious leaders, Peshmerga and US-led coalition members, and diplomats in Erbil.
“We were also very keen this year to make the service more inclusive. We also included a verse from the holy Quran and... for the first time found a poem that is very well known among the Kurds (Abdulla Pashew - The Unknown Soldier).”
He added that they also commemorated the Peshmerga who sacrificed their lives in the fight against ISIS.
Today @ShorshIsmail & @SheikhJaafarSh1 and many @KRG_MOPE officials participated in @ukinerbil commemoration ceremony to honor all the heroic and brave soldiers who lost their lives & all the Peshmerga martyrs in the fight against terrorists for #worldpeace.#RemembranceSunday pic.twitter.com/Fn6gObzMpx
— Ministry of Peshmerga (@KRG_MOPE) November 14, 2021
The Ministry of Peshmerga said Kurdish officials participated in the “commemoration ceremony to honor all the heroic and brave soldiers who lost their lives and all the Peshmerga martyrs in the fight against terrorists for #worldpeace.”
