ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sunni Arabs in troubled Anbar province, where forces of the Shiite-led government in Baghdad are locked in fighting with tribes and insurgents, now say they understand why the Kurds would want to separate from the rest of Iraq.
“I see no future for Sunni Arabs or the Kurds under the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki,” said Sheikh Abdul Ali al-Dulaimi, a tribal leader in Sunni Anbar province, which since the start of this year has been a battlefield between government forces and Sunni tribes and insurgents.
The events in Anbar have many Sunnis accusing Maliki’s Shiite-led government of alienating the Sunnis and driving the Kurds toward thinking about independence.
The Sunnis complain of discrimination and marginalization by the government. Early this year, Maliki sent in troops to break up year-long Sunni protests in Anbar. Since then, the province has been a battlefield, with refugees fleeing in the tens of thousands.
In the meantime, the government has frozen payments from the national budget to the Kurdistan Region, after the Kurds said they want to export their own oil and gas to Turkey and beyond. Kurdish leaders have called that a declaration of war.
“Maliki is the one who pushes the Kurds toward secession,” Dulaimi told Rudaw. “The situation would not have led to this if there were common sense and wisdom, instead of the declaration of war or cutting the salaries of the Kurds,” said the 50-year-old leader from Ramadi.
He added that Maliki is not only cutting the Kurdish budget, but is eager to impose a blockade on them in any way he can. He “wants to break the will of the Kurdistan Region.”
Iraq’s large Sunni minority has traditionally been opposed to Kurdish independence. But that view has changed, now that the Sunnis find themselves at war with the government.
“It is best for the Kurds to secede now and rely on themselves rather than being at the mercy of the central government, even though it hurts the interests of the Sunni Arabs,” Dulaimi said.
He added that the Sunnis are equally victimized by the Shiite-led government and that separation might be their best bet, too.
“We have fallen in the trap of extremist Shiite religious ideology that aims at the exclusion of others,” he said. “That is why we must stand up against Maliki by all available means, including separation from the government in Baghdad.”
Abdullah Hashim al-Jubouri, a 53-year-old resident of Fallujah in Anbar, said he hoped that an independent Kurdish state in future would stand by the Sunnis against threats from Baghdad.
“I'm with the Kurdish secession, but they must unite with the Sunni Arabs after they create their strong region, forging a united front to block any military attempt, political floundering, intimidation, killing or imprisonment of people by the central government.”
He added that the government’s sectarian policies had made it “impossible” for the Sunnis and Kurds to continue living with the present government.
Jubouri said that if the Kurds secede, they should take with them the energy-rich province of Kirkuk, which is part of the so-called “disputed territories” claimed by both the Kurds and Arabs.
“I say it’s better for Kurds to take Kirkuk than for it to be taken by the Shiites. At least the Kurds are Sunnis and we are sure our love for them and their love for us is uncontested.”
Part of Jubouri’s support for the Kurds stems from his appreciation for the shelter the Kurdistan Region has provided for Sunni Arabs who have fled Iraqi army attacks on their towns.
But Hatem Uday Mohammad, a retired civil servant, said that Kurdish separation would only worsen the situation in Iraq. He believes that the sharp exchange of words between Baghdad and Erbil is nothing but a political game, which he hopes will pass without breaking the country apart.
“I do not wish for our Kurdish brothers to secede from Iraq and can’t imagine this happening, as it will be a disaster,” said Mohammad, 64.
But 35-year-old teacher Ibtisam Abdullah believes that the Kurds have the right and necessary means to fulfill the dream of having their own state.
“They have all the ingredients for it,” she said. “They have oil, development projects, infrastructure and good universities.”
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