15 - Report about Zakho

Report on some deposits in Asian Turkey by Pedro Hermann Blumenau The city of Zakho is located not far from the northern border of the Mosul wilajet between two mountain ranges in a fertile plain on the Khabur River, which flows into the Tigris at Feishabur. The distance to Mosul is about 95 km, to Feishabur 30 km. From Zakho the coal can be transported by means of the usual hose-rafts, Keleks, on the Khabur, which has sufficient water for this almost during the whole year, and then further on the Tigris to Baghdad, or after completion of the Baghdad railroad to a suitable point of this. According to information given to me on the spot, the labor conditions are not unfavorable, since in the zone where the coals occur there are about 2000 able-bodied men, who at present hardly find employment. The population is mainly Kurdish, with the exception of some villages inhabited by Christians. Whether the Kurds, who live mainly from robbery, will be suitable and inclined for the heavy mining work, seems to me, however, quite questionable. The local daily wage is low; it amounts to 5-7 piastres, about 0.92 - 1.50 Vienna Currency.

Speaker: Zack Hart Text: Excerpt from "Report on some deposits in Asian Turkey / Author: Pedro Hermann Blumenau. Source: Political Archive of the German Foreign Office Image: Pira Delal Bridge / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International / Wikipedia User Moplayer