ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Thousands of Kurds staged protests in the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil as well as in Zakho and Germany's Cologne as part of continued demonstrations condemning Iraqi army and Iranian-backed Hashd al-Shaabi takeover of disputed areas. The protesters were pleading for help from the international community.
For the third consecutive day, protests in Erbil took place. On Sunday, people gathered in front of the Russian Consulate and called on Moscow to support the Kurdistan Region.
"As a displaced person from Kirkuk, I am calling on the Russian Consulate in Erbil and President Putin to reach out to the suffering people of [Kirkuk] who have been displaced in a regional conspiracy just for being a Kurd,” said one protester, pointing the finger at the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi as the main problem.
He also urged the UN to reach out to the displaced persons from Kirkuk sheltering in the cities of Erbil and Sulaimani.
"It is our right to have our own state. Enough. The neighboring countries must stop hostilities against us. Enough," appealed an elderly woman, a mother of Peshmerga.
"Iraq, Iran, and Turkey – they are all attacking us. They are our enemies," she said. "We are an oppressed nation."
Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani over the weekend called on Kurds in the diaspora to help Kurdistan, now “facing threats, blockades and collective punishment” for exercising their peaceful right to hold a referendum.
Hundreds of protesters in the German city of Cologne, which held the largest Kurdish diaspora rally to support the independence referendum in the weeks before the vote, gathered to demand global assistance for the Peshmerga and the Kurdistan Region.
"This is the least duty on the shoulders of every single Kurdish individual to do for his or her country. We held the referendum, whispering into the ear of the world that we are a peaceful nation wanting independence," said a protester in the crowd that was chanting "Kurdistan, Kurdistan, Kurdistan."
Thousands also staged a demonstration in the northern Kurdistan Region city of Zakho, making similar calls on the international community.
On Friday, angry Kurdish protesters caught in a video shared on social media took down Iran's flag at the Iranian Consulate in Erbil, a move which was condemned by the consulate.
The protesters were reacting to accusations from Kurdish security officials, including the Peshmerga, that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps were involved in the Iraqi-led military operations in the oil-rich Kirkuk province and other disputed or Kurdistani areas claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad.
On Sunday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called for Iranian “militias” to leave Iraq.
Similar demonstrations against the perceived silence of the international community were also staged in London and Stockholm on Saturday.
Iraqi forces and the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi took over disputed areas of Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Diyala provinces last week, including the city of Kirkuk.
After deadly clashes in Pirde (Altun Kupri), 50 km from Erbil, the US State Department released a statement expressing their concern over the violence and called on the two sides to coordinate their movements in the disputed areas and begin dialogue.
The statement stressed the status of the disputed areas according the Iraqi constitution.
“The reassertion of federal authority over disputed areas in no way changes their status – they remain disputed until their status is resolved in accordance with the Iraqi constitution,” the statement read, urging Erbil and Baghdad to coordinate on security and administration in these areas.
The Kurdistan government welcomed the US statement and said they are prepared to cease the clashes and are open to beginning talks with the central government without any preconditions.
Baghdad has, however, detailed a number of concessions the Kurdistan government must take before it will sit down at the table.
“Holding any talks with Baghdad will surely be on the basis of conditions, namely the integrity of Iraq, the constitution, handing over border ports, airports, the country’s wealth, Peshmerga forces, Kurdish security establishments, enforcing the law in disputed areas and preventing any move which might be taken by the Kurdistan Region contrary to the constitution,” Saad Adisi, spokesperson for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s media office, said in a news conference on Saturday.
Some 30 Kurdistan Region political parties rejected the latest demands from Baghdad and called for the central government to agree to unconditional talks.
