What Iraq is doing these days is working to eliminate the Kurdistan Region and its moves and decisions are all steered in this direction, but the Kurdistan Region and its government are enshrined in the Iraqi constitution which makes the elimination of the three autonomous provinces illegal.
The Hashd al-Shaabi attacks on the Kurdistan Region with all types of heavy weapons contradict the constitution that says the armed forces must not be used in domestic political rivalries and the army must not be politicized. Ending ethnic and religious balance within the army puts into question its legitimacy while their tanks and hummers are adorned with religious flag of a certain sect.
Not only their victims, but international human rights organizations too, testify that these forces have committed acts of violence, human rights abuses and destruction of homes on a sectarian basis. Nowhere in the world does a force call itself patriotic while in the meantime blowing up and plundering people’s homes based on sectarian and religious differences.
Not only Iraq’s Prime Minister and parliament have chosen silence over these events, they on the contrary praise and salute these forces.
Wherever these forces have reached in Kurdistan they have practiced absolute acts of discrimination. They enter and dominate places under sectarian banners. They do also hoist flags of all sectors and branches of the Hashd al-Shaabi and Turkmani front in Kirkuk. But the flag of Kurdistan which Hashd’s own spokesman Karim Nuri calls the symbol of Kurds is systematically brought down, insulted and banned.
The Kurdistan Region was the only hope to correct Iraq from being unconstitutional and going down the wrong path, but now and especially after the recent military incursions things are going to become more complicated. What is being done to the people of Kurdistan will lead to the complete breakup of Iraq.
Iraq isn’t living the days of Saddam Hussein when things ran on the decisions and wishes of one man. Iraq is also living a worse situation than it was when ISIS invaded it. The victors may think this is a wrong assumption, but once a group of men in turbans are at the helm everyone will see that even someone like the prime minister will not stand a chance.
The world will realize its grave strategic mistake once they see in a near future that Iraq is completely under the Hashd al-Shaabi and a place modeled after Iran. They will also see that allowing Kurdistan Region to be attacked before their own eyes was the main cause for such an Iraq to come into being.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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