Canada tells Kurds it wants unity in Iraq
• Canada has told the Kurds that it wants to see Iraq remain united and not broken into different parts that would include an independent Kurdish state. But experts say it is only a matter of time before the Kurds, strengthened by Canadian military assistance, try to declare independence.
The Liberal government announced this week that it was beefing up military support for the Kurds in northern Iraq. That includes tripling the number of Canadian soldiers training Kurdish peshmerga forces, and providing them with small arms and other equipment.
This was despite federal officials warning Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last year that once the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant militants are defeated, the Iraqi government will face “a range of land disputes with the (Kurds), as well as strengthened Iraqi Kurdish forces, which have received training and equipment from coalition members, including Canada.”
The 30 million Kurds across Turkey and much of the Middle East have long sought their own country. Those in northern Iraq have a degree of autonomy, but their ultimate aspiration is official statehood. Kurdish forces are currently locked in a standoff with Shia militiamen loyal to Baghdad outside the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.
A spokeswoman f or Global Affairs Canada, previously known as the foreign affairs department, says Canada is “committed to the unity and territorial integrity of the Republic of Iraq.” Diana Khaddaj added that “this position is well known to our Iraqi interlocutors, including in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.”
Khaddaj said the govern- ment’s decision to expand military support to peshmerga was driven by the needs of its allies in fighting ISIL. She did not say how Kurdish desires for independence were considered or weighed as the Liberal government decided on Canada’s new mission.
As for concerns Canada is contributing to an eventual conflict between the Kurds and the Iraqi government, Khaddaj said: “We are in close contact with the Iraqi authorities on the implementation of our new strategy, which will be carried out with the full consent of the Iraqi government.”
Canada and its allies have had no choice but to rely on the Kurds to fight ISIL, particularly early in the war, experts say. The Iraqi military proved to be an ineffectual force as it fled before the militant group’s advance in summer 2014. The Kurds stepped in to fill the security vacuum and stop ISIL from going farther.
But the Kurds have also become more vocal in their desire to establish an independent country. Kurdish officials have said they will never surrender any of the territory they now hold in Iraq, while Kurdish President Masoud Barzani announced last week that the government would hold a referendum on independence.
Bessma Momani, a Middle East and security expert with the University of Waterloo, says Canadian officials are sensitive to the question of Kurdish independence because of its similarities to circumstances in Quebec. As a result, the government has no choice but to champion a unified Iraq in public.
“It’s Quebec nationalism all over again,” she said. “How do you tell a nation within another state that you have all the right to self-determination? It’s signalling something very dangerous to our separatists.”