ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdistan’s second-largest party has condemned parliament’s decision on Tuesday to extend its current term by eight months as a “coup.”
Birzo Majid, reading a statement on behalf of Gorran’s parliamentary faction, stated that they stand behind the call to establish an interim government to replace the current cabinet that exposed the Kurdistan Region and the disputed or Kurdistani areas to the “grave threat” of the Iraqi forces.
He accused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), in practice ruled by just two parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), of going ahead with the referendum without taking possible consequences into considerations.
Gorran was a member of the five-party coalition government formed after the 2013 parliamentary elections, until it fell out with the KDP in October 2015. It has not attended any parliamentary sessions since the legislature reconvened in September, ahead of the independence referendum.
Majid said parliament’s vote on Tuesday to postpone parliamentary and presidential elections was just as bad as losing half of the Kurdish-controlled territories to Iraqi forces.
“Today they are committing another coup against legitimacy and extending the term of the parliament in an undemocratic way,” Majid told reporters.
He said Kurdish leaders, namely of the KDP and PUK, among others, have chosen to bypass the law instead of admitting to their failure to protect Kurdish rights in the Kurdistan Region and the disputed areas.
Gorran, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal), and the Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) of the former Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Barham Salih, have jointly called for the establishment of an interim government and for the presidency institution to be abolished, followed by free and fair elections.
The KDP and PUK, who have great influence over the Peshmerga and security forces and hold 56 seats in the 111-seat parliament, have rejected the demand to establish an interim government.
Majid said that the Kurdistan Region, a recognized entity in the Iraqi constitution, is going through a “sensitive situation” because the events of the past week, including the fall of Kirkuk, an oil-rich province that is claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad.
He condemned Iraqi military operations in Kirkuk and elsewhere, saying that objections to the Kurdish referendum do not justify violating the rights of the Kurdish people.
“As the parliament faction of the Change Movement, we strongly condemn the military aggression on the disputed areas. Holding a referendum must in no way become an excuse to commit violations against the national rights of the people of Kurdistan,” Majid explained.
He added that the “constitutional rights [of the Kurds] are not up for compromise under any excuses.”
Under the Iraqi constitution, the status of Kirkuk and other areas claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad remains disputed until Article 140 is implemented. It entails a number of steps that is aimed to reverse the process of Arabization conducted by the former Iraqi regime, followed by a referendum that lets the people in those areas chose between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
Majid, while acknowledging that elections will not take place under the current circumstances, claimed that there was an agreement between the PUK and KDP to postpone elections even before the fall of Kirkuk.
Fusrat Sofi, a KDP MP, told Rudaw that they voted in parliament on Tuesday to postpone the elections because, as stated by the election commission, there was a lack of candidates and the current situation in the Region is unstable.
Gorran and Komal have boycotted every parliamentary session since it was reactivated last month following its closure in October 2015.
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