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This week leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq announced September 25th to be the date they will hold a historic referendum on Kurdistan’s independence from Iraq. The announcement came from an inter-party meeting chaired by KRG president Massoud Barzani, from which only the Gorran Movement and Kurdistan Islamic Group were absent (further effort is expected to bring these two parties on board with the project).
The referendum will apparently be held in all “Kurdistani territory” rather than just the recognized Kurdistan Autonomous Region – meaning that voters in areas disputed with Baghdad (such as Kirkuk and Khanaquin), but controlled by the Peshmerga and largely populated by ethnic Kurds, will get to vote. This will of course raise hackles in Baghdad and the rest of Iraq, but Kurdistanis feel that Baghdad’s failure ever to implement Article 140 of the Constitution (which promised a referendum on these territories’ accession to Kurdistan, among other things) justifies the move.
Voters will be asked one simple question: “Do you want an independent Kurdistan?” Elections for a new parliament and president would follow before November 6th.
This columnist’s very supportive views on holding an independence referendum should be well known to regular Rudaw readers, so it might prove best to address objections to such a referendum coming from within Kurdistan itself (the people of Kurdistan are already all too familiar with the objections from Baghdad, neighboring states and Washington D.C.). Dr. Choman Hardi, a professor at the American University of Iraq in Suleimani (and a friend of this columnist), expressed the following reservations about the referendum – objections that many in especially the eastern parts of Iraqi Kurdistan harbor (the “yellow” or western parts of the region are those more historically supportive of the Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party):
“This decision [to hold a referendum] is alarming for those of us who are concerned about the high levels of corruption in the Kurdish government (KRG), the dire economic situation, the undermining of democratic principles and the steps taken towards a dictatorship [by the Barzani family]. While people believe that they are finally given the chance to vote on an issue of great importance, the referendum, in the current circumstances, does nothing but defusing attention away from the KRG’s failure to tackle corruption, provide economic security for its people, diversify the economy, and build a democratic system. A ‘Yes’ vote, at this moment, will help Barzani consolidate his power and legitimise the failing government.
There is not doubt that most Kurds want independence but the question is what kind of independence? Personally, I want a secular democratic Kurdish state where leaders are appointed and voted out through elections (no fraud), a state where the parliament makes legislation according to public interest, where the government is not corrupt, the judiciary is independent, and no one is discriminated against based on their gender, ethnicity, class, sexuality. I would support independence only under these conditions and I refuse to support a Kurdish dictatorship. In my view there is no difference between a Kurdish dictator and an Arab or a Turkish one.”
Dr. Hardi’s fears for democracy in an independent Kurdistan are legitimate ones that the KDP will have to work hard to allay if they want to maximize support for an independent Kurdistan. This columnist very much disagrees that such fears should make someone who supports independence vote ‘no’ in the referendum, however.
Such objections were the kind of thing that prevented a more unified Kurdish stance during the 1920s and the Barzinji, Ararat, Sheik Said, Simko and other rebellions. When a more unified Kurdish people could have rallied together to force the colonialists to leave room for a Kurdistani state along with the Turkish, Persian and nearly two dozen Arab ones they created or accepted, the Kurds instead fell into bickering and mutual recriminations. The result led to one hundred years of ethnic cleansing, occasional attempts at genocide and the complete gutting of Kurdish group and individual rights under fascists in Baghdad, Tehran, Damascus and Ankara.
Surely, given this history, people might want to consider unifying around the actual referendum question and then after that, getting right back to the hard work of struggling for democracy in either the Kurdistan Region or an independent South Kurdistan?
Those with a little more faith in the leaders of the KDP (and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan/PUK as well) can also reasonably hope that these leaders prove more progressive than the independence movements of Algeria, South Sudan and the dictators that ruled over Kurdistan for the last 100 years. Despite problems, the KDP and PUK have many good and praiseworthy accomplishments under their belts since 1992, things that greatly improved life for everyone in South Kurdistan.
While a ‘yes’ vote in September does require some continued faith in these parties from a fairly cynical population, that faith might be better placed in Erbil than in Baghdad.
David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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