A clear signal from Kurdistan

July 27, 2008


A clear signal from Kurdistan


The steady and strong effort of the Kurds of northern Iraq to break away from Iraq and set up an independent Kurdistan has entered a new phase. Following the Iraqi parliament's passage of a bill concerning provincial elections — that was subsequently vetoed by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd — the Kurdistan Alliance issued a statement denouncing the endorsement. It said the federal parliament had violated the constitution by allowing a secret voting process on the bill on regional elections.
Subsequently, the alliance has also moved to expand the territory under its control.
The committee in the Kurdistan Parliament in charge of revising the Kurdistan constitution has proposed language that would formally incorporate portions of four provinces into the Kurdistan Regional Government, according to a report in the Al Hayat newspaper. The four provinces to be dismembered are Diyala, Kirkuk, Mosul and Salahuddin, on the grounds that they have Kurdish populations. The language will be presented to the KRG parliament for consideration during its August recess. The Kurdistan constitution will be voted on in a referendum.
One of the keys to understanding the Kurdish move is that Tamim — the province centred on Kirkuk —  sits atop more than enough oil to support an independent Kurdish state. The Kurds are seeking to secure absolute control of Kirkuk along with its oil wealth that would be the central pillar of the economy of Kurdistan.
The move to expand the territory under Kurdish control is yet another affirmation that the conflict pitting Kurds against Arabs in Kirkuk is worsening, with Turkey throwing in its lot to defend what it considers as its interests vested with the Turkomen living in the area. Essentially, Ankara is worried that the Iraqi Kurdish move would eventually draw in Turkish Kurds and pose a threat to Turkey's territorial integrity.
It is continuing military attacks against the Turkish Kurdish rebel group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is based on northern Iraq and stages frequent cross-border attack against Turkish targets. The latest Turkish action came on Thursday when Turkish warplanes bombed 13 Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, with the Turkish military saying was determined to press ahead with anti-PKK operations both inside Turkey and across the border in Iraq "according to military needs."
The Kurdish Alliance is following a carefully charted game plan. At no point does it refer to an independent Kurdistan and always affirms its commitment to Iraq as a single entity. It reiterated its position in a July 23 statement which said in part:
"From the beginning of the post-Liberation political development of Iraq in 2003, the KRG has placed the interests of the wider Iraq first and foremost, and has shown a continual commitment to the principles of flexibility and compromise in order to peacefully and constitutionally solve problems created by the former Ba'ath regimes' policies."
Indeed, the Kurds have suffered a lot under the Saddam Hussein regime's reign. They have always pursued their dream of independence. With the move to expand their territorial control, they are signalling that they would not be dissuaded from their quest for an independent state of their own in Iraq, notwithstanding declarations and statements.