NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — WPLN Reporter Rose Gilbert begins her story patronizing shops and restaurants along Nolensville Rd. Conversations with shop owners led to a history lesson of how Nashville became North America's largest Iraqi-Kurdish population. One shop owner opened up about his family's journey coming to America as a refugee seeking asylum from Saddam Hussein's genocide of the Kurdish people. Gilbert followed his family back to visit their homeland in Iraq. They show her how they escaped death from chemical weapons used on their village, their struggle to adapt to American ways settling in Nashville and how coming back to their small Iraqi town of Chalke, only for a visit, renewed their Kurdish culture for their family but in their hearts only, for Kurdistan is not a recognized country.
