AIDING KURDS RAISES ALARM
OFFICIALS WARN OF FUTURE TURMOIL
Federal officials warned Prime Minister Justin Trudeau late last year that Canada may be contributing to long-term instability in Iraq by training and equipping Kurdish forces whose ultimate goal is to create an independent state.
The Kurds’ top diplomat in North America says such fears are “unfounded,” as any move toward independence from Iraq will be peaceful. Yet, she also says the Kurds have no intention of giving up land they have “liberated” from ISIL, and which is claimed by Iraq’s central government in Baghdad.
Trudeau said this week that Canadian warplanes would stop bombing ISIL in Iraq and Syria by Feb. 22. Canada will instead concentrate on military training, diplomacy and aid. That includes tripling the number of troops training Kurdish forces in northern Iraq to more than 200, and giving the Kurds arms and other equipment.
The Kurdish peshmerga emerged as Canada’s main allies in Iraq after ISIL captured large parts of the country and sent the Iraqi military fleeing in disarray in 2014. Canadian troops have since trained the peshmerga, escorted them into combat and helped them repel at least one large-scale ISIL attack.
But federal officials worried about the long- term implications of such support. The approximately 30 million Kurds across Turkey and much of the Middle East have long sought their own country. While those in northern Iraq have a degree of autonomy, their aspiration is independence.
In a briefing note prepared for Trudeau shortly after his instalment as prime minister in November, officials said the war with ISIL had allowed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which controls the Kurdish part of Iraq, “to expand into disputed territory in northern Iraq, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.”
“Should the (ISIL) threat recede,” the officials said, “Baghdad will have to contend with a range of land disputes with the KRG, as well as strengthened Iraqi Kurdish forces, which have received training and equipment from coalition members, including Canada.”
The rest of the note, obtained through the access to information law, was blacked out. Trudeau’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
BAGHDAD WILL HAVE TO CONTEND WITH A RANGE OF LAND DISPUTES WITH THE (KURDS).
I THINK THERE ARE DEFINITELY A LOT OF
GOOD PEOPLE WHO GET DROWNED OUT; IT’S
ALMOST GIVEN TO THE LOWEST COMMON
DENOMINATOR. — ALEX VICK ON U.S. POLITICS
In an interview Tuesday, the KRG’s representative in Washington, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, welcomed the Liberal government’s plan to triple the number of Canadian military personnel training peshmerga forces, as well as provide guns and other equipment.
Rahman also said the KRG desperately needs money, thanks to the low price of oil, an influx of refugees from other parts of Iraq, and the cost of fighting ISIL. “This economic crisis is really as big a threat to us as (ISIL),” she said. “It is a serious threat to the Kurdistan Region’s ability to conduct the war.”
The Liberal government has said its new plan for dealing with the crisis in Iraq and Syria will include about $1.1 billion in emergency humanitarian aid and longerterm development assistance. Rahman was hopeful some of that money would be directed to the KRG.
“Right now we feel like everything is on our shoulders, and we just don’t have the economic wherewithal to deal with it.”
Rahman rejected suggestions the Kurds would use their new- found military training and equipment, once ISIL is pushed back, to force Baghdad to give them their own state.
“With regards to a war for independence, that is absolutely not in our plan,” she said. “We have a long-term vision for our independence, and we will achieve it. But we want to achieve it through dialogue and consensus.”
Rahman said the Kurds won’t give up Kirkuk or other disputed territory that has been claimed by the Kurds, and which was abandoned by the Iraqi military when ISIL attacked.
“These so-called disputed territories, for us Kurds, they have never been disputed. They have always been part of Kurdistan,” she said.
“We will not give them back, because those territories were not protected by the Iraqi army. Why on earth would we give them back?”
Thomas Juneau, a University of Ottawa Middle East security specialist, said arming the Kurds could lead to longterm pain for the region.
“In the short term it makes sense,” Juneau said.
“The Kurds in Iraq and in Syria are among the most reliable fighting forces on the ground against (ISIL),” but they have aspirations for a country of their own, he said, meaning Canada may be “playing against our longterm objective” of a united and stable Iraq.
Arming Iraqi Kurds also could strain Canada’s relations with Turkey, which is battling Kurdish rebels — the group known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which Canada has listed as a terrorist organization.
The Iraqi Kurds are very close to the PKK in Turkey, Juneau said.
Peggy Mason, president of the Rideau Institute, urged the government to reconsider the plan to arm the Kurds, noting there’s a spotty history of weapons caches falling into the hands of ISIL throughout Libya, Syria and Iraq.