ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdish Parliamentary Union is working to organize a meeting of all Kurdish MPs in the Middle East and Europe, whose aim is to get lawmakers working for Kurdish interests in their own countries.
The initiative has already taken off with the formation of a committee to organize the congress, and MPs said the meeting could be a stepping stone to a Kurdish National Congress that was slated for last August but was never held.
"The organizing committee has already travelled to Iran and Turkey and they have also spoken with political groups in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan),” said its head, Nimat Abdullah.
“We intend for all Kurdish MPs -- wherever they are in the world -- to attend this congress,” he told Rudaw.
Abdullah explained that the end goal of the congress is for Kurdish MPs to pursue the political, economic and cultural interests of Kurdish populations in their countries of citizenship, and to elevate the discussion to the international level.
Najat Yasin, a member of the organizing committee, told Rudaw that all political parties in the four parts of Kurdistan (Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran) have welcomed the idea, and expressed satisfaction that the congress is not driven by a political agenda.
Yasin noted that the Kurdish National Congress, which the political parties were trying to hold last August but have postponed several times, “has not succeeded so far.”
“The organization of the congress for Kurdish MPs is a similar step to bring parliamentarians from all parts of the world together,” he said.
The autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq has its own 111-seat parliament. In neighboring Iran, despite some recent grievances against the government, Kurdish MPs are actively engaged. In Turkey, the Kurds have 36 seats in parliament.
In addition, there are MPs of Kurdish origin in European countries such as Britain and Sweden.
Kardo Muhammad, an MP from the Kurdistan Region’s Change Movement (Gorran), said that a conference of MPs could become the foundation for the greater Kurdish National Congress, which has been postponed several times.
“This attempt to organize a congress for all Kurdish MPs isn't unrelated to the will of Kurdish parties for a national congress,” said Muhammad.
