ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Six Kurdish-Iranian parliamentarians, who resigned last week in objection to what they said was the country’s “discriminatory” budget draft, are expected to meet with President Hassan Rouhani this week.
The Kurdish MPs believed that the budget allocated for their province was meagre, in comparison to that of other provinces.
Following their walk-out, Rouhani’s government assigned special envoys to persuade and bring the Kurdish MPs back to the negotiating table.
Salar Muradi, a Kurdish MP from Sanandaj (Sina) told Rudaw that he and his colleague would meet with President Rouhani this week to address concerns.
“We will remind Mr. Rouhani of the promises he made to the Kurdish people,” said Muradi. “We will try to make sure his promises are made into constitutional and political decisions.”
The Kurdish MPs believe that their resignation was symbolic, but that “the act carried the grievances of the Kurds to the government’s ears.”
They said that their main aim is to increase government investment in infrastructure in the Kurdish areas and secure support for agriculture, in a region where farming constitutes the main source of income for many people.
In case their meeting with Rouhani and his government is fruitless, said Muradi, the MPs are intent on leaving parliament again.
“As an MP I cannot ignore the needs of my people,” said Muradi. “So if the government doesn’t really follow up on its promises, I will go back to Kurdistan.”
During his election campaign in June Rouhani toured the Kurdish areas, where he received overwhelming support.
It was also reported that 80 percent of eligible Kurdish voters in Iran voted for Rouhani, based on promises he made to grant cultural rights to minority groups and relax restrictions on political activists.
However, like many Kurds in Iran, the Kurdish MPs believe that the new budget suggests that Rouhani is backtracking on campaign promises to treat the Kurdish province as a potential growth region.
“President Rouhani made a few promises to the people of Kurdistan, but in the budget we don’t see any sign of his promises, especially for development projects,” Kurdish MP Hamed Qaderwarzi complained last week.
