Foreigners in rush to leave Kurdistan ahead of flight ban by Iraq
FOREIGNERS scrambled to leave Iraq’s Kurdish region before the start of a flight ban imposed by Baghdad last night in retaliation for an independence referendum that has sent regional tensions soaring.
Iraq’s central government ordered a halt to all international flights to and from the autonomous region from 6pm (4pm BST), in a move widely seen as Baghdad tightening the screws on the breakaway Kurdish authorities.
The Kurds have condemned the flight suspension as “collective punishment” after 93 per cent of 3.3million votes cast in the referendum were for Kurdish independence.
Washington has said it would be willing to facilitate talks between the Iraqi Kurdish authorities and Baghdad to calm escalating tensions over the “yes” vote, as a top Shia cleric called for the crisis to be solved in an Iraqi court. The day after the vote Haider al-abadi, the Iraqi Prime Minister, gave the region a three-day window to hand over control of its borders and airports.
Domestic flights will still run under the ban, allowing travellers to access Kurdistan via Baghdad’s airport. Mr alabadi said the ban was not “punishment” but a legal measure that would be reversed if the transport authority was transferred to Baghdad in line with the Iraqi constitution. Yesterday, Iraqi Kurdistan’s transport ministry sent a letter to Baghdad asking to “open negotiations” on flights but was still awaiting a reply, a ministry spokesman said.
On Thursday the usually sleepy Erbil International Airport was crammed with travellers, as aid workers, diplomats and citizens sought to get out before flight restrictions were imposed.
By yesterday, around 100 passengers waited eagerly for their planes in Erbil, where the last flight out was to Vienna at 4pm. “We were supposed to go back to Brazil next Saturday but we rescheduled our flight because of the border closing,” said Isidoro Junior, a 32-yearold volunteer for a non-governmental organisation providing medical help to Iraqis displaced by the war against Isil.
“We are a group of 16 people, so it was quite difficult to find enough seats. One of us came here at 2am to make sure... we would be able to fly out,” he said. In the region’s second largest city Sulaimaniyah, foreigners and others needing to leave sped to the airport, while Kurds abroad rushed home. “There have been masses of people for two days,” Dana Mohammad Said, an airport spokesman, said. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish president, called the referendum “illegitimate”, threatened economic and military action, and said it risked pitching the entire region into ethnic and sectarian war.