Kurdish voters overwhelmingly back self-rule
IRBIL, Iraq — Kurds voted overwhelmingly to secede from Iraq, with nearly 93 percent approving a referendum held Monday in the northern region of the country, according to an official tally released Wednesday.
Kurds celebrated in the streets of Irbil, the capital of their semiautonomous enclave, hailing the result as a landmark moment in a centurylong and bloody struggle for autonomy.
Election authorities said they were proud of the 72 percent turnout, calling it a powerful expression of the enthusiasm Kurds have for self-rule — despite mounting threats of economic and political isolation by regional powers and Baghdad.
The bid for independence continued to roil Iraq’s central government and regional neighbors Turkey and Iran, and is shaping up to usher in a period of contentious wrangling over its implementation.
Earlier Wednesday, Iraqi lawmakers authorized Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to deploy troops to a disputed city in northern Iraq and urged legal action against Kurdish leaders as a showdown escalated over the vote. The parliament also called for the government to take control of all oil fields in the Kurdish region.
Several regional airlines said they would suspend flights to airports in the Kurdish region in a sign of Baghdad’s pressure to try to punish and isolate the Kurds.
The move toward autonomy, a long-cherished dream for millions of Kurds, was vehemently opposed by the United States as well as Turkey and Iran, which are worried about their own restive Kurdish populations.
Several regional powers have threatened to impose a raft of sanctions to forestall any further steps toward independence and force the Kurds to negotiate with Baghdad. Iran and Turkey have separately held military exercises along their borders with the Kurdish region ahead of and since the vote.
Although it opposed the referendum, the State Department said Tuesday that it would not affect Washington’s long-standing partnership with the regional government.
The flight suspensions — by Egyptian, Lebanese and Turkish carriers, as well as one based in Dubai — came after Abadi ordered Kurdish authorities to surrender control of the airports to the central government in Baghdad by Friday.
In a speech to parliament Wednesday, Abadi demanded the annulment of the independence vote, saying Iraq would “not allow any violation of the Constitution.” Tamer El-Ghobashy and Kareem Fahim are Washington Post writers.