“We as the Kurdistan parliament consider the statement made by his Excellency Haider al-Abadi irresponsible and a flagrant mistake,” read a statement issued by the parliament’s presidential body on Friday.
During a meeting of his Dawa Party on Wednesday, Abadi referred to Kurdistan’s independence vote and Baghdad’s subsequent assertion of control over the disputed areas, saying “Uniting Iraq and preventing it from partition was another victory, which was no less than the triumph achieved over the ISIS terrorist gangs.”
That statement is far from “the values and principles of citizenship and contrary to Article 9 of Iraq’s permanent constitution, which in no way allows or gives legitimacy to mount these military actions against Iraqi citizens. This is another blatant violation of the constitution,” the parliament stated.
Article 9 of the constitution states that the Iraqi armed forces “shall not be used as an instrument to oppress the Iraqi people, shall not interfere in the political affairs.”
The Kurdish leadership has repeatedly accused Baghdad of violating this passage when it responded to the independence referendum with force and took control of the disputed areas in mid-October.
The parliament called on Abadi to not close the door on dialogue with the Kurdistan Region, warning that such statements “are a danger and a threat to the future of Iraq.”
“Negotiations are the only way to remove the obstacles and reach a solution for all the problems,” the parliament concluded.
The Peshmerga Ministry similarly slammed Abadi’s remarks, saying Iraq would never have succeeded against ISIS without Kurdish assistance – a fact the whole world knows.
