Kurds hand Baghdad ultimatum on poll
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan has given Baghdad three days to reach an agreement with his government over an alternative to next week’s highly contested referendum vote.
Masoud Barzani set the deadline while speaking at a campaign rally in Soran in the governorate of Erbil.
Baghdad’s central government rejects the vote, calling it “unconstitutional”, while the US, Iran and Turkey have pressed the Kurds to postpone the poll.
They claim the referendum will distract from the fight against ISIL and spark further instability in the region.
“People of the Kurdistan region want independence. We will not accept threatening language from any country,” Mr Barzani said.
“We are the factor of stability in the region.”
Instead, he called for agreements with Baghdad, backed by international and regional countries, to replace the referendum.
But Mr Barzani said that “this has not been offered yet”.
“I will be honest with you, Baghdad has not reached that level yet,” he said.
A curfew was imposed in Kirkuk yesterday after one person was killed in clashes between Turkmen security guards and Kurds.
The city is inhabited by several different ethnic groups and claimed by the Kurdish region and Iraq’s central government.
Kirkuk’s council has voted to take part in the referendum.
Turkey, which fears Kurdish independence in Iraq could empower the Kurdish separatists within its borders, has sent tanks and troops to near the Iraqi border.
Turkey’s defence minister Nurettin Canikli yesterday warned that the break-up of Iraq or Syria could have dire consequences.
“A change that will mean the violation of Iraq’s territorial integrity poses a major risk for Turkey,” Mr Canikli said.
“The disruption of Syria and Iraq’s territorial integrity will ignite a bigger, global conflict with an unseen end.”
Baghdad’s central government deployed police in the early hours yesterday after clashes erupted in the northern city of Kirkuk amid preparations for Kurdistan’s independence referendum.
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, has vowed that there “will be no delay” on the Kurdish independence referendum on September 25 despite international and regional opposition.
Kirkuk’s police force said it had imposed a curfew “to prevent tensions from escalating” and checkpoints were set up across the city after a Kurd was killed in a clash with guards outside the city office of the Turkmen political party.
Three others were injured – one Turkmen and two Kurds – in the skirmish that erupted when a convoy of Kurdish referendum supporters drove by the Turkmen Front’s headquarters.
Arshad Al Salehi, Iraqi member of parliament and head of the Turkmen Front in Kirkuk, described the situation in the city as critical.
“Kurdish Peshmerga troops attacked the Turkmen Front headquarters while passing on Monday night,” Mr Al Salehi said. “Clashes broke out when the Turkmen security guards in the building responded to the attack.”
The Turkmen Front’s deputy leader, Abbas Beyatli, said the party condemned the attack, saying it was aimed at igniting a civil war in Kirkuk.
Tensions in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which is home to Arabs, Turkmens, Christians and Kurds, arose after its Kurdish-led municipal council voted this month to take part in the planned referendum, although Kirkuk does not lie within Kurdish territory. Kurdish forces took control of the province and other disputed areas in the summer of 2014 when ISIL extremists swept across northern and central Iraq and the Iraqi forces crumbled.
The British defence secretary, Michael Fallon, is in Erbil, the capital of semi-autonomous Kurdistan region, trying to persuade Kurdish officials to call off the planned poll. Mr Fallon renewed Britain’s opposition to the vote, on the grounds that it is a distraction from the battle against ISIL in Iraq.
“We are committed to the integrity of Iraq. We are working with the UN on alternatives to this referendum,” Mr Fallon said.
His intervention came as Iraqi prime minister Haider Al Abadi discussed the Kurdish referendum with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyib Erdogan.
Mr Erdogan said Turkey will “co-ordinate with Iraq to ensure security and stability in the region”.
Both leaders stressed the need to urge the Kurds to call off the vote to avoid destabilising the region.
Saudi Arabia has offered to mediate between Baghdad and Erbil. After meeting Mr Barzani on Saturday in Erbil, Thamer Al Sabhan, Saudi’s minister of state for Gulf affairs, praised the Kurdish president for accepting international mediation.