Abdullah Kurdi strikes a refined note sitting in the Saray Cafe of the luxury Divan Hotel in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan region. He is in crisp new clothes bought for him by his sister Tima, who has flown from Canada to be by her brother’s side for our interview. The hovering “protocol officer” provided by Abdullah’s hosts, the Kurdistan Regional Government, reinforces what the local leadership wants to convey: this is an important man, deserving of VIP treatment.
It is more than a month since Kurdi was thrust into the spotlight, but his expression is still etched with turmoil: jaw permanently clenched, eyes hollow. Crumpled and tentative, his body language belies the practised determination of his words.
“I want to open a charity for the children of Kobani,” he says. “I am visiting refugee camps in the name of my son Alan. I have seen their suffering. I will not fail them.”
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