KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish MPs and residents in Iraq’s most hotly contested province say they don’t trust Baghdad and have little interest in political dealings in the capital.
Kurdish and Sunni Arab MPs walked out of Parliament’s first session on Tuesday after Shiite MPs failed to name a candidate for prime minister. Embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has served for eight years, is facing massive opposition to re-election as Sunni extremists and Iraqi Sunni tribes gain control of large swaths of land and Kurds threaten to secede.
Sirwan Rahman, an MP from Kirkuk, expressed anger over Baghdad’s decision six months ago to cut funds to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) — effectively cutting off the region’s main source of income.
He said Kurdish MPs from the ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk “don’t need to sit in Baghdad” and believes a new prime minister won’t make a difference for the Kurds.
"Maliki rules autonomously,” he said. “Whomever comes to power will be authoritarian and anyone who succeeds Maliki would be like him; it’s the same policy. Maliki is guarded about what he’s doing; it’s the policy of the Arabs and this is how Arab policies are (towards Kurds),” he said.
Kurdish forces moved swiftly into Kirkuk to fill a security vacuum left by the retreating Iraqi army who lost battles to Sunni militias last month. Kurdish leaders are unanimously rejecting the demand that Peshmerga forces to withdraw from what they call "newly liberated Kurdish territories."
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution details a series of steps to resolve areas of dispute between the Kurds and Baghdad — most notably oil-rich Kirkuk — via a referendum that would determine whether the areas will join the Kurdistan Regional Government or be governed by Baghdad. But the referendum has never been held, angering Kurds who have accused Baghdad of dragging its feet on the issue.
Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region, has called for the United Nations to help hold a referendum on Kirkuk.
"The new reality (of Peshmarga capturing Kirkuk) resolved the territorial issues for us,” said Shakhwan Abdulla a newly elected MP for the Iraqi parliament. “Now there’s just the issue of the referendum over the fate of such areas."
Many Kurds in Kirkuk also don’t trust Baghdad.
"I think going to Baghdad to take part in the next Iraqi government is a big mistake,” said Hassan Jumaa, a writer from Kirkuk. “We shouldn’t forget that they’ve long been a wolf that has constantly attacked us. Now their teeth are broken.”
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