Violence breaks out while Kurdish leader steps aside
BAGHDAD — Clashes raged in front of Irbil’s parliament building after the president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, Masoud Barzani, dissolved his powers as president Sunday just more than a month after a controversial independence referendum he spearheaded sparked a deep regional crisis.
An Associated Press team witnessed dozens of protesters attacking the building, parliamentarians and journalists as Barzani addressed the Kurdish region in his first televised speech since the referendum’s fallout turned violent earlier this month. Downcast, the longtime Kurdish leader blamed the central government in Baghdad for the regional crisis that followed the independence vote.
“They (Baghdad) used the referendum as an excuse. Their bad intentions were very clear from a long time ago,” he said.
“Without the peshmerga the Iraqi army would never have been able to liberate the city of Mosul,” he continued, referring to Iraqi Kurdish fighters. “We thought that the international community would reward the peshmerga and the people of Kurdistan in return. They would respect the blood of the martyrs.”
Barzani instructed parliament to distribute his presidential powers between the Kurdish prime minister, Parliament and the judiciary. He also informed parliament that he will not seek an extension of his term which is set to expire Nov. 1, but Barzani’s senior assistant, Hemin Hawrami, said the move did not mean the Kurdish leader was “stepping down.”
Barzani “will stay in Kurdish politics and lead the high political council,” but on Nov. 1 he will no longer be president of the region, Hawrami said.
Kurdish presidential elections scheduled to be held in November have been postponed indefinitely.
The referendum on support for independence held in September has since left the region more isolated.
Despite warnings from Baghdad, the United States, Turkey, Iran, the United Nations and others, the vote was held Sept. 25 in the three provinces that make up the autonomous Kurdish zone as well as in disputed territories claimed by Baghdad but at the time held by Kurdish forces.
Within weeks, the referendum proved to be extraordinarily costly. The region lost nearly half of the territory that had been comfortably under Kurdish control for years, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The region’s airspace was closed to international commercial flights, Turkey threatened the use of military force, and both Iran and Turkey threatened to close border crossings vital to the landlocked region.
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