Aiding Kurds raising alarm for future instability in Iraq
OTTAWA—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 in dependent 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 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 are 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, officials said the war with ISIL had allowed the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) “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 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.