Kurds ‘reenergize’ independence referendum plan
Vote would strengthen Kurdish demand for self-determination
ERBIL (Reuters) – Iraq’s Kurds plan to hold a referendum on independence this year to press their case for “the best deal” on self-determination once Islamic State is defeated, a senior Kurdish official said.
The Kurds already run their own autonomous region in northern Iraq and the official, Hoshiyar Zebari, indicated that the expected “yes” outcome in a vote wouldn’t mean automatically declaring independence.
But with Kurdish forces also controlling wider territory regained from Islamic State, the referendum plan adds to questions about Iraq’s unity after the insurgents have been ousted from Mosul.
The two main Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, agreed at a meeting on Sunday that a referendum should be held this year, Zebari, a senior member of the KDP leadership, told Reuters.
“The idea of a referendum has been reenergized,” Zebari, a former Iraqi foreign and finance minister, said in an interview in Erbil on Wednesday evening, commenting on the meeting held with the PUK’s leadership.
The Kurds played a major role in the US-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State, the ultra hard-line Sunni group that overran about a third of Iraq nearly three years ago.
The jihadists are now fighting off Iraqi forces in Mosul, their last major city stronghold in Iraq from where they declared a “caliphate” that also includes parts of Syria.
While the fall of Mosul would effectively end the caliphate, it will not solve deep divisions over power, land and resources between Iraq’s Shi’ite Arab majority and the important Sunni Arab and Kurdish communities.
The two rival Kurdish groups issued a joint statement on Sunday declaring support for the plan of holding a referendum, leaving its exact timing to an agreement with other, smaller Kurdish groups.
Zebari described the aim as “self-determination,” leaving open the exact nature of any deal with Baghdad following the referendum when Kurds would be likely to vote strongly for independence.
“It will give a strong mandate to the Kurdish leadership to engage in talks with Baghdad and the neighbors in order to get the best deal for Kurdish self-determination,” he said.
Iraqi Kurdish independence has been historically opposed by Iraq and also its neighbors, Iran, Turkey and Syria, as they fear the contagion for their own Kurdish populations.
Iraq’s Kurds are the community to have advanced the most toward their long-held dream of independence. Iraq has been led by the Shi’ites since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, in 2003, following a US-led invasion.
They run their own affairs in the north, through a Kurdistan Regional Government, led by KDP leader Massoud Barzani.
They have their own armed forces, the Peshmerga, which prevented Islamic State from capturing the oil region of Kirkuk in 2014, after the Iraqi army fled in the face of the insurgents.
The Kurds have historical claims over Kirkuk, which is also inhabited by Turkmen and Arabs. Hard-line Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi’ite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region and other disputed areas.
Kirkuk’s Kurdish-led provincial council rejected this week a resolution by the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad to lower Kurdish flags raised since last month next to Iraqi flags over public buildings of the region.
“We don’t agree with the claim ‘Kirkuk is for the Kurds’ at all. Kirkuk is for the Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds, if they are there. Do not enter into a claim that it’s yours or the price will be heavy. You will harm dialogue with Turkey,” he said at a rally in the Black Sea province of Zonguldak.
The KRG government rejected the Iraqi and Turkish demands, arguing that the Kurds’ role in defending Kirkuk against Islamic State justified the hoisting of their flag.
“If it wasn’t for the Peshmerga, there would be neither Iraq’s flag in the city nor Kurdistan’s,” KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani told reporters in Erbil on Wednesday.