ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – In a major gathering in Erbil this week, Iraqi Sunnis declared a new alliance whose aim is to block a third term for Iraq’s Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, after the upcoming April 30 legislative elections.
The Karama (Dignity) Alliance, led by Iraqi Sunni businessman Khamis Khanjar, comes at a time when the country’s large Sunni minority has turned its back on the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, accusing Maliki of neglecting Iraq’s Sunnis and Sunni regions.
Maliki’s government, which first faced months of Sunni protests in Anbar province, is now locked in fighting against Sunni militants there.
"The alliance came into being due to the protests in Anbar against the dictatorial rule of Nuri al-Maliki," Khanjar said during an event announcing the union on Tuesday.
“The people of Anbar will not forget detained parliamentarian Ahmed Alwani. He will once again be a candidate for the Iraqi Council of Representatives within Karama," he added.
Last year, Iraqi security forces raided Alwani’s home in Anbar, arresting him on terrorism charges. The Sunni MP had stood with protestors in the town of Ramadi for months, denouncing Baghdad for discriminating against Iraq’s Sunnis.
Iraq’s Sunni provinces witnessed waves of protests against the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, accusing it of marginalizing Sunnis from the political process and depriving basic services to Sunni-majority regions.
"We want to represent the protesting voices of all who are dissatisfied with all oppression, pressure, dictatorship and corruption in Baghdad," Khanjar told Rudaw.
The new Sunni alliance believes that multi-ethnic Kirkuk, which lies in the so-called “disputed regions” that are claimed by Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds, should be given a special status as Iraq’s “summer capital,” where all religious and ethnic groups can coexist.
"Kirkuk is a disputed area and no elections should be held in Kirkuk until the situation is normal,” said Abdul Razaq Shammari, deputy of the Karama Alliance.
According to Khanjar, the new alliance has selected leaders from among the protesters, and has a clear political program reflecting the demands of the demonstrators.
Asked if the new Sunni alliance has any plans to declare a Sunni region – fashioned after the autonomous Kurdish region in the north – Khanjar suggested that was a possibility.
“Kurds and Sunnis are not happy with Shiite rule, and we are proud of what the Kurdistan Region has proven, bringing stability and prosperity. Why should we not apply the Kurdistan Region's experience to the rest of Iraq?"
On the question of an independent state, which the Kurdish leaders have threatened to declare if Baghdad continues to violate the constitution, both Khanjar and Shammar said they favored Kurdistan remaining within Iraq.
"We want to transfer Kurdistan’s experience to the rest of Iraq, not have the Kurdistan Region separate from Iraq," Khanjar said.
"We always want Iraq to remain as it is. We have been together for thousands of years; we want a just ruler to run Iraq without discrimination,” said Shammari.
