Iraq’s Kurds have earned their right to independence
Its leaders have renounced terrorism. Their militias fight alongside US soldiers. While their neighbours built weapons of mass destruction, they built a parliament, universities and the infrastructure for an independent state. And they pursue independence through a recognised legal process, enshrined in their country’s constitution.
I am talking about Iraq’s Kurds. On September 25, they will vote in a referendum to endorse a state of their own.
One might think the US government would see the Kurds as ideal candidates for statehood in a region where self-determination is often sought through violence. But the Trump administration so far has worked assiduously to dissuade the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq from giving its people the opportunity to vote for independence.
The US arguments against the statehood referendum revolve mainly around timing. Next year, Iraqis themselves are supposed to have elections. A vote to break away from Iraq would weaken Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi when he has been helpful in keeping Iraq together and leading the fight against Daesh.
What’s more, the Kurdish referendum will offer Iraqis in disputed areas like Sinjar, and most importantly the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the opportunity to choose between Iraq and an independent Kurdish state. Asking citizens to vote for independence in areas that are disputed within Iraq is a recipe for trouble, US diplomats say. They want the Kurds to reconsider.
Michael Rubin, an expert on the Kurds at the American Enterprise Institute, told me the referendum “is being done for the wrong motives.” He said the decision to apply the referendum to people in Kirkuk and other disputed areas “will guarantee conflict”. “If they were to go independent, immediately Kurdistan would have a fight over its borders,” he said.
These objections, however well intentioned, have not deterred the initiative. The Iraqi constitution promised such a vote, and Kurdish leaders have delayed it for years. It is time for Iraq’s Kurds to at least formally convey what anyone who has followed this issue already knows: Kurds deserve their own country.
Aziz Ahmad, an adviser to Masrour Barzani, the national security adviser to the Kurdistan Regional Government, told me senior delegations who travelled to Washington and Baghdad asked the US for some assurance in exchange for flexibility. “We told them, ‘If you have disagreements on the timing, give us formal guarantees of when we should hold the referendum.’ They never did,” he said.
Instead of treating this like a problem, President Donald Trump should see the Kurdish referendum as an opportunity. Here we have an ethnic minority that has done — for the most part — everything we ask of groups seeking statehood.
The Kurdistan regional government today is by no means perfect. Its politics are dominated by two families. They are three years past due for elections on a new government, though the region’s president, Masoud Barzani, says there will be new elections in November.
The Kurdish people have built a state worthy of independence, under the protection of the US military. That should be a source of pride for all Americans. Trump administration should welcome Kurdish independence.
On September 25, they will vote in a referendum to endorse a state of their own