Iraqi Kurds vote in historic independence referendum
IRAQ - Iraqi Kurds are casting ballots in Iraq’s Kurdish region and disputed territories on whether to support independence from Baghdad, in a historic but non-binding vote that has raised regional tensions and fears of instability.
The referendum will not immediately bring independence, but it would mark a definitive stance by the Kurds to break away, and Kurdish leaders say they will use a “yes” vote to press for negotiations with Iraq’s central government to win statehood. Iraq has called the vote constitutional and it is opposed by Iran, Syria and Turkey, who also have Kurdish minorities. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, yesterday threatened military intervention in response to the vote, stressing that Kurdish independence was unacceptable to his country and that this was a “matter of survival.” He said Turkey would take also political and economic measures against steps toward independence and suggested it could halt oil flows arriving through a pipeline from northern Iraq, depriving Iraqi Kurds of revenues. “We have the valve. The moment we shut the valve, that’s the end of it,” he said. Iran, which yesterday called the vote “untimely and wrong” and has since Sunday been holding a military exercise in its northwestern Kurdish region bordering Iraq. More than 3 million people are expected to vote across the three provinces that make up the Kurdish autonomous region, as well as residents in disputed territories areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk according to the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission, the body overseeing the vote. Lines began forming early in the day at polling stations across Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital. “Today we came here to vote in the referendum for the independence of Kurdistan,” said Tahsin Karim, one of the first people to vote in his neighborhood. “We hope that we can achieve independence.” The Kurdish region’s president, Masoud Barzani, also voted yesterday at a polling station packed with journalists and cameras. At a press conference in Erbil on the eve of the referendum, Barzani said he believed the vote would be peaceful, though he acknowledged that the path to independence would be “risky”. “We are ready to pay any price for our independence,” he said.
(Theguardian.com)