Peshmarga Forces: The Eye of the Erbil-Baghdad Storm

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – As Baghdad and Erbil voice new and encouraging rhetoric about resolving their biggest rows, a senior official at the Kurdistan Region’s Peshmarga ministry says that the central government owes some $15 billion in unpaid expenses for the past 10 years.

“In the past 10 years, Baghdad has failed to pay 15 trillion Iraqi dinars (ID), which is roughly about $15 billion,” said Jabar Yawar, chief of staff of the Peshmarga ministry.

He explained that, constitutionally, the Kurdistan Region is annually entitled to 17 percent of the budget, which means that for 2014 the Peshmarga ministry should receive 3.7 trillion ID.

“Iraq’s (draft) budget for 2014 has allocated 22 trillion Iraqi dinars for the ministry of defense and armed forces. If 17 percent of that budget is given to the Peshmarga forces, then the amount due is 3.7 trillion dinars,” Yawar said.

The budget of the Peshmaragas, which constitutionally are part of the national armed forces but remain under Erbil’s control, has been one of several thorny rows that have strained ties between the Shiite Arab central government and the autonomous Kurds in the north.

The other important argument is over direct oil exploration and exports, which Baghdad had always opposed but recently appears to have accepted as a reality.

Insisting on Baghdad’s side of the argument over the Peshmargas Hassan Snaid, head of Iraq’s parliamentary security committee and a member of the ruling State of Law coalition, told Rudaw that the Peshmargas are a Kurdish force and sorting out their budget is Erbil’s responsibility.

“If the federal government is to provide the budget and expenses of the Peshmarga forces, then the Kurdish force has to be under the full command of Iraq’s armed forces,” Snaid stressed.

“The Peshmarga forces are Kurdistan’s border guards and therefore it's the obligation of Erbil to provide their budget, not the federal government,” Snaid added.

Kurdish authorities argue that the autonomous Kurdistan Region is officially part of Iraq and therefore the Peshmarga forces “should be applauded for keeping this part of the country secure and stable.”

Kurdish leaders balk at the idea of merging the Peshmarga with the Iraqi army. They are keen to maintain the force – which helped fight Saddam Hussein’s regime for decades – under their own command.

They argue that the Iraqi constitution, which was voted two years after Saddam’s overthrow in 2003, stipulates that Baghdad is responsible for the expenses of the Peshmarga forces.

Last week, following a visit to Baghdad, for the first time Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said there was a new tone in the Iraqi capital over resolving the budget and oil issues. Officials in Baghdad also voiced positive remarks about continuing meetings until the issues are solved.

In the 1990s Kurdistan’s different political groups each had their own Peshmarga forces. But they were all united under the Ministry of Peshmarga, which remains one of the key components of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

In 2004, Kurdish leaders agreed to incorporate several thousand Peshmargas into the Iraqi army as their contribution to rebuilding the country’s armed forces, which were dissolved after Saddam’s overthrow.

In the past several years, Baghdad has deliberately chosen not to address the issue of the Peshmarga budget, arguing it should fall into a broader agreement between Erbil and Baghdad over all outstanding disputes.