ERBIL, Kurdistan Region –The fall of Mosul is likely to mark the beginning of the breakup of Iraq, as has been the case with countries who have come out of ethnic and religious conflicts, such as Czechoslovakia, Kurdish President Masoud Barzani says, adding that an independent Kurdistan would bring more stability to the Middle East, a region that otherwise has been troubled with massacres and conflict since the two world wars.
Barzani went on to say "independence and complete liberation" will be the loyal reward for the past and present sacrifices of the Kurdish nation.
President Barzani made these remarks to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, published on March 5, coinciding with the anniversary of the Kurdish uprising against the former Iraqi regime in 1991 which eventually gave birth to the present autonomous Kurdistan Region with its own parliament, government and armed forces.
"The desire to keep the united Iraq is there, but the reality is that today Iraq is already divided by unsolvable problems,” Barzani said when asked whether Iraq will come out of the war against ISIS as a united state. “Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting for 1400 years and we Kurds are the victims of this war. We have to find a new formula of coexistence."
Barzani said that “too many massacres have occurred, leaving no room for reconciliation,” with a divided Iraq along the sectarian lines of Sunnis and Shiites, as he commented on the prospect of an independent Kurdistan, saying that the Kurds had tried to reconcile with the rest of the country after the fall of Saddam in 2003, but it failed because of the sectarian war between the two sects that has been going on for 1400 years.
"The independence of Kurdistan would create an area of stability in this region. We have already seen too much blood and injustice,” Barzani said, noting that an independent Kurdistan will be “based on the rule of law, respect for democratic rules, coexistence between different identities, and a multiparty system.”
“In the Middle East we can help to reduce crises and conflicts. It is in everyone's interest,” Barzani said talking about the impact of an independent Kurdistan on the Middle East.
Comparing Kurdistan to a disfunctional Iraqi state which he said is drowned in the conflict between Sunni and Shiites, Barzani said that Kurdistan is and will be different, since it is not a faith-based society.
"We are a nation, not a faith,” he said. “The Kurds are Muslims, Christians, Jews, Yazidis, and more but have a common national identity. We are a society based on the recognition of people's identity, a nation that believes in peaceful co-existence, a people who have self-determination and which must be protected by international law. Shiites and Sunnis, however, are faiths and in constant war with each other."
“In the Middle East and Europe, history has shown that states created after the First and Second World Wars have proved unsustainable and fictitious. Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia have faded away, as it happens today to the legacy of Sykes-Picot,” Barzani said, in reference to an agreement between Britain and France as negotiated by British diplomat Mark Sykes and his French counterpart Francois Georges-Picot. The agreement resulted in the creation of present borders of countries that used to be part of the Ottoman Empire before the First World War, including Iraq.
President Barzani also published a statement late Sunday evening, on the anniversary of the 1991 uprising, saying that the reward for the past and present sacrifices of the Kurdish people is “independence, and complete liberation.”
“We commemorate the uprising at a time where the brave Peshmerga forces have achieved great victories against the Islamic State terrorists. The Kurdish nation has made sacrifices and endured hardships,” the statement from President Barzani said, “Hence, the best loyalty and response to the uprising, the Peshmerga and the sacrifices made by the people of Kurdistan, is independence and complete liberation. I deem it essential to tell the enduring people of Kurdistan that a bright future is awaiting our country, that the uprising and the sacrifices made by the Peshmerga and the people will bear fruit,” the statement continued, adding that unity among Kurds has always been a core ingredient behind the success of the Kurds.
“We, more than ever, need to be united, live up to our responsibilities and take into account higher interests of Kurdistan,” the statement added.
Asked by the Italian newspaper whether the Syrian Kurdistan, also called Rojava, where the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has founded a self-declared Kurdish enclave, can follow the example of Kurdistan Region, President Barzani said there was an opportunity for Rojava to do so, but PYD lost it, because its armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), has accepted the help of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a named terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union, and the United States.
The opportunity was lost "for the simple fact that the YPG has accepted the help of the PKK, considered a terrorist organization in many countries. The YPG has also accepted the help of the regime of Bashar Assad. These choices have separated us from them," Barzani said. "I still hope that they can change themselves. But these wrong policies compromise the future of Syria's Kurds. It is only in the interests of the PKK.”
Barzani also said that the fall of Mosul does not mean the end of ISIS because it will survive in some other form or shape. To defeat the extremist group, he said, you have to fight it on many fronts, including its economy and ideology.
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