ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Speaker of the Kurdistan Region Parliament Yousif Mohammed, announced on Saturday that he is ready to leave his post if the move will deescalate political tensions and usher in a stable, democratic governing system.
“I do not view my post as important and I sacrifice it for the people of Kurdistan,” said Mohammed, speaking on the sidelines of the Sulaimani Forum for Municipalities. “Let us all sacrifice our posts for the interest of the people.”
Mohammed, who is from the Change Movement (Gorran), believes that the existing crisis in Kurdistan is much wider than the political gridlock that has paralyzed the country for the past year and it cannot be solved by “activating parliament, returning the parliament speaker, reshuffling parliamentary posts and the return of ministers to their positions.”
“We see the daily circumstances of the people. People do not get their salaries. We do not have a stable governing system. All the authorities have been sabotaged and our democratic system is also sabotaged," Mohammed told Rudaw.
Relations between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Mohammed’s Gorran declined in 2015 after rioters set fire to KDP offices and killed two of its local party members in Sulaimani province in November.
The KDP accused Gorran of orchestrating the riots and sacked its four ministers from the KDP-led cabinet in addition to expelling Mohammed, speaker of the parliament, who took the office after a deal with the KDP following inconclusive elections in 2013.
The regional parliament in Erbil has not convened since November last year with Gorran demanding ousted speaker Muhammad be returned to his post.
In a bid to end the political stalemate, Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani has taken initiative to lay the groundwork for meetings between Kurdish parties by sending Fuad Hussein, chief of staff of the Kurdistan Presidency, to visit the parties’ leaders.
The parliamentary speaker believes that “such kinds of meetings will not improve the conditions of people if there is no realistic will to carry out reforms in Kurdistan.”
A KDP official told Rudaw that Mohammed’s comments were not surprising.
“Yousif Mohammed’s comment is normal and it is not something new. Everybody is ready to make such comments saying national achievements are more important than posts. So his speech is within the same context,” Sarbast Lazgin, a member of the KDP leadership, told Rudaw.
Lazgin added that “the KDP has insisted on the dismantling of the previous agreement through which Gorran obtained the post of parliamentary speaker.”
He also said that his party is ready to turn a new page and “sign a new agreement because Mohammed and his party ended the coalition and they were the reason for our agreement’s dismantlement.”
“The KDP is ready to activate the parliament and government through a new agreement and that needs discussions and fresh agreements.”
In earlier comments to Rudaw, Ghazi Saaid, a politburo member of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), said both the ruling and opposition parties “had reconciliatory tones” and were ready to meet each other half way.
“Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa has said that he will agree to replacing Yousif Muhammad and [will support] the referendum and other KDP demands, but what will Barzani do in return?” Saaid asked.
