It’s mainly mud on what is to become the road to the new border post between the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and Turkey, only the second one for general use through the mountain ranges dividing the two. Cows amble by without a shepherd; a truck leaves a fresh trail.
“Before, you could not walk here without being shot at,” says Kak Salah, a commander serving with the Iraqi Kurdish security forces in the border region. He comes to a halt and will go no further, pointing to the peak of the highest mountain in front of us. “The Turks watch us from up there. If you [went further] looking for your cow, they would shoot. Today might be your lucky day, or it might not.”
