Barzani: We’ve a choice, go backwards with status quo or march forward with independence

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region--Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani has expressed his disappointment that a Kurdish delegation was not invited to the anti-Islamic State summit in Washington last week and he reminded everyone the high price Kurdistan and Kurdish people have paid during the war with ISIS.

“The people of the Kurdistan Region have paid a heavy price in our ongoing war against the terrorists of the Islamic State. The Peshmerga forces with their bravery and sacrifices have drastically weakened the terrorists and have proven once again that they are an essential anti-terror force in the region,” said Barzani in a statement published on his official Facebook page on Monday.

“In spite of this very obvious fact, the Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs recently created obstacles for a Kurdish representative to be present in the last anti-Islamic State summit in Washington. Unfortunately the hosts of that summit went along with the Iraqi Foreign Minister,” he continued.

Barzani said that the Kurdish people are in need of their own sovereignty where they will be able to make their own decisions.

“This type of treatment cannot be accepted and we are indeed in need of our own sovereignty where we are able to determine our fate,” he added.

Barzani made it clear for the people of Kurdistan that now is time to make a decision and there is a choice to make, “The first of which is to accept the status quo where others determine our fate while we march backward. The other choice is to make a collective decision and take serious steps towards sovereignty and independence.”

The Kurdistan Regional Government’s representative in Washington, Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, was able to attend the conference at the last minute but the Region was unable to prepare a formal delegation.