Fourth Blog Post
John McCall
Dr. Jenkins
Intro to American Government and Politics
April 28, 2022
Fourth Blog Post
Iraq is an interesting country. Carved up and created by the British after the first World War, with a periodical history of coups and despots, dealing with its rich oil fields, and much more. Iraq also has the third largest Kurdish population in the Middle East after Turkey and Iran. If there is one Middle Eastern nation wherein the Kurds have the best chance today, in terms of practicing their own culture and traditions without fear, it is Iraq. Why is that? First of all, if you look at a map of Iraq, an ethnic map, you will see that the whole northern region is filled with a Kurdish population and is considered the Kurdish region of Iraq. Some call it “Iraqi Kurdistan,” and one advantage Iraqi Kurds have there is acknowledgement from the Iraqi government, no matter who is in charge at the time, that that is the region where Kurdish Iraqis live. That sentence may seem unnecessary, but it is not when one considers the treatment of Iraqi Kurds by the Iraqi government in the last century. After Kurdish Ottoman hopes of an independent Kurdistan were quashed in the 1920s, there occurred in Iraq a series of uprisings and rebellions by Kurds in that northern region. All failed and none was suppressed more brutally than by Saddam Hussein, targeting them with chemical weapons in 1988. But when Saddam Hussein was finally overthrown in 2003, things got better. A new Iraqi government was formed and, perhaps more importantly, a new constitution was ratified in 2005. This constitution assured the rights and legal protection of the Iraqi Kurds. In addition to Arabic, Kurdish was acknowledged as an official language of Iraq. And that northern Kurdish region I mentioned earlier, it was granted autonomous status, remaining a part of Iraq but enabled to rule itself. This was glorious news to the Kurds at the time. Now, all of this sounds like good news. It certainly was, but the issue written about here is the illustration that even if and when Kurds in the Middle East have a modicum of self-rule, as they do in Iraqi Kurdistan, they still face backlash and discrimination.
Iraqi Kurdistan is led by the Kurdistan Regional Government, or KRG. From 2005 to 2017, the leader of the KRG was a man named Masoud Barzani. In 2017 he announced to the world that later that year they would hold an “independence referendum” to discuss, debate, and vote on the question of whether or not to seek independence from Iraq. During the independence referendum the vote was largely in favor of seeking independence from Iraq. The reaction to this in the world was one of shock, to the neighboring Middle Eastern countries, reaction was spiteful. The federal government of Iraq, based in the capitol Baghdad, denounced the vote for seeking independence and made aggressive moves against the KRG. Masoud Barzani resigned as leader. The federal government seized a fraction of land from Iraqi Kurdistan in what some may call an intimidation move. While the independence referendum made clear the desire of Iraqi Kurdistan to seek independence, it was a failure in terms of making a plan on how to pursue that goal. Leaders of the neighboring Middle Eastern nations bitterly criticized the referendum. Recep Erdogan, the President of Turkey, said in an interview that Iraq would be foolish to allow separation and that Iraqi Kurdistan would receive no welcome into the family of nations. That may or may not be so, but it shows that if Iraqi Kurdistan did in fact become an independent nation, it would be not only surrounded but geographically landlocked by nations harboring hatred for it.
It is easy to understand why leaders in Turkey, Iran, and Syria were and are opposed to the establishment of an independent Kurdish region in modern Iraq. Think for just a moment on how inspirational that would be to the Kurds in their countries. Ideas of seeking their own Kurdish independence, or perhaps migrating in massive groups to Iraqi Kurdistan, no doubt crossed their mind when news of the independence referendum spread. Looking at the viewpoint of Iraq, it makes sense to me that the federal government decided to crack down on one of their regions as soon as it publicly announced that it intended to start seeking independence. What country on Earth wants to lose a fraction of its territory, no matter who or what is in it? While I am sure that many of those leaders would like to get rid of their Kurdish populations, they would never do it at the cost of losing territory. The whole thing is a conundrum. After Masoud Barzani stepped down, Nechirvan Barzani became the new leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government. Since 2019 he has tried to foster better relations with Baghdad and bring the international community more into the issue. As to potential solutions I am not sure. As I mentioned before, since 2017 it has been crystal clear that the people of Iraqi Kurdistan do not just want to be autonomous, they want to be independent of Iraq. This desire and hope should be taken into account by all. I think that the nations of Turkey, Iran, and Syria can tough talk as much as they like against the independence referendum or Iraqi Kurds, but I believe they have no say in the matter. They do not dictate the affairs of Iraq, only of their own countries. But I fully understand their worry about their own Kurdish populations getting inspired and maybe one day attempting to become independent. Perhaps more talks between the KRG and Baghdad should take place and maybe, with diplomacy and tact, common ground can be found.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28147263
https://minorityrights.org/minorities/kurds-3/