An embassy for a nation with no state

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Luqman BarwariEntrepreneur Luqman Barwari prepares food at his Kurdish “embassy” near Los Angeles.

All across the Middle East – from Iraq to Syria and from Turkey to Iran – there’s an ethnic group who has no recognized nation of its own. More than 20 million Kurdish people have no country, which means no embassy anywhere in the world.

But in Los Angeles, one Kurdish-Iraqi immigrant is creating his own unofficial embassy. A place where the Kurdish culture is being kept alive and shared with non-Kurds on a daily basis.

“[The Kurds] are peace loving. They like to co-exist with people. We don’t like war. We don’t like distraction and maybe that’s why we’ve been going through a lot,” explained Luqman Barwari, owner of Niroj Kurdish Cuisine, a restaurant near Los Angeles.

An Embassy for a Nation with No State

Full Frame contributor Sandra Hughes discusses the Kurdish "embassy" near Los Angeles.

Full Frame contributor Sandra Hughes has the story.

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