ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--As Kurds in Iraq inch closer than ever to the prospect of independence, despite the lack of support from neighboring countries including Iran, which has always insisted on a united Iraq, a Kurdish Iranian leader said if Kurdistan declares independence, Iran would be forced to accept it. On the sidelines of an Erbil seminar held by the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) on Thursday Khalid Azizi, Secretary of the Iranian Kurdistan Democratic Party, told Rudaw English that “Iran will have no option but to recalculate its interests and find ways to accept and deal with the new situation if Kurdistan of Iraq announces independence.” Azizi’s party is one of the main Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups based in Iraqi Kurdistan, fighting Iran for almost four decades and still struggling to achieve basic national rights for Kurds in Iran. He believes the current reaction of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Kurdish independence and its efforts to keep Baghdad and Erbil united are understandable. “Iraq is a multi-national country. A political solution of any kind in Iraq can be a good model to resolve Iran's local problems in future especially since the problems are of the same nature and coming from the same roots,” Azizi explained. However he argued that “referendum and independence in Iraqi Kurdistan is something that Kurds in Iraq are in charge of. The main factors are all available for the Kurds in this part to achieve independence. It will not be easy for Iran to stand against the will of majority of people in the Kurdistan Region.” The international community that so far has no serious or direct opposition to the Kurdish issue in Iraq, according to Azizi, is also something that Iran would not be able to stand against. “Iran cannot stand also against the international community that has crucial political and military presence in Kurdistan Region and looks at Kurds in Iraq with special importance,” he argued. Azizi believes that the Kurdistan Region is on the right track to achieve independence and that Kurds in this region should use the opportunity wisely and carefully to achieve their long-held dream. Although there is no direct international support for Kurdish independence in Iraq, the president of the Kurdish region Masoud Barzani insisted once again this week that the Kurdish nation must decide their own fate. “If political parties in Kurdistan show lack of responsibility to use this historical moment, this is the nation that will decide on that matter and the people’s decision is the most powerful and most authoritative sort of decision,” said Barzani, without saying when such a referendum should be held. He announced in a statement on Sykes-Picot’s 100th anniversary that the world owes responsibility for a “real resolution” for Iraq’s continued suffering. Barzani, who this week received an official invitation to visit Iran for the first time since 2011, declared earlier this year that a referendum on Kurdish independence should take place before the US election in November. The future of the Kurds was also in focus at a panel discussion in Washington DC on the centenary of the Sykes-Picot agreement on Monday. Ryan Crocker, a former US ambassador to Iraq, told Rudaw that Washington should assist in the creation of an independent Kurdistan. Panel experts explained that barriers to the formation of a Kurdish state are lower than ever before.
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