Sami Abdul-Rahman Park

Sami Abdul Rahman Park is the largest park in Kurdistan Region, situated at the West side of Erbil city, neighbored by the Sixty Meter Street from East, and exactly opposite the buildings of Kurdistan’s Parliament and Council of Ministers of the Region. Near it from South passes the main road between Erbil and Mosul cities. In the past (prior to 1991), it was a military point embracing a large number of military units. The military presence in the city’s western suburb at that time had distorted the natural construction development of Erbil city for seven decades, ever since the foundation of the Iraqi State.The Kurdistan Regional Government reserved a parcel of 800 thousand sq. m. of the lands that used to be a series of military camps during Dictatorial era, and decided to transform it into a spacious public garden after the mid-nineties of last century. The implementation of this project- which turned a large part of the city into a rich oasis- was closely and personally followed up on a daily basis by the late Kurdish leader Sami Abdul-Rahman, ex-Deputy Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government at that time, who was killed with a number of Kurdish leaders and militants during a terrorist attack executed by a criminal who took advantage of the celebration of the Qurban Cejin [Feast] on the first date of February in 2004, and blew himself up inside the second Branch Office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Erbil. He was following up in person on the stages of completion of this project, This park and all the other gardens and parks in Erbil are accessed for free. All the visitors and summer tourists have only to abide by the regulations and keep the place clean and Sami Abdul Rahman Park is contains a lot of children games and restaurants, in addition to the Erbil International Fair Ground, Zaytun Public Library, theaters, a number of statues and monuments, a summer movie theater, and two artificial lakes.