As Baghdad Continues ‘Economic Siege,’ Kurds Appeal for Help

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is appealing to Iraqi religious leaders, the international community and powerful institutions like the United Nations to pressure Baghdad into lifting an economic siege of the autonomous Kurdish enclave.

Baghdad and Erbil are locked in a complex political feud. The Kurds insist that their autonomy gives them constitutional rights to exploit and export their own vast oil and gas resources, and have signed a comprehensive oil and gas deal with energy-hungry Turkey next door. They already have piped Kurdish oil, which is ready for sale at the Turkish port of Ceyhan.

But Baghdad has come down like a brick against the deal, insisting the exports must go through its State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO).  The fight is over who gets to control the revenues.

To force Erbil to kneel, Baghdad has frozen the KRG’s monthly deposits from the national budget, which go to pay for things like government salaries.

The KRG has condemned Baghdad’s tactic as both illegal and immoral, because it puts pressure on   average employees, some of whom are having to go without pay.

Earlier this month, Kurdish businessmen and investors reportedly gave $85 million to the Central Bank of Kurdistan to help bridge an immediate cash crisis. Reports said the money would pay the salaries of teachers, laborers and other workers, some of whom have staged week-long strikes.

The KRG is appealing for help against Baghdad from inside and outside Iraq.

"According to the constitution, the Kurdistan Region is a part of Iraq and has the right to benefit and use all the rights and powers enshrined in the Constitution, including the right to receive its share of the budget from Iraqi resources," said a statement on the KRG's website.

“The budget and salaries of the citizens should not be used as leverage against the Kurdistan Region and its citizens in any way,” the statement added.

It called for various pressure, including from the powerful religious leaders, or Marja, who have influence with the fellow Shiites who run the government in Baghdad.

“We invite the respected religious Marjas, the United Nations and countries related to Iraq, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Arab League to assume their responsibilities and use their powers to put pressure on the Iraqi federal government to end the policy of economic blockade and marginalization towards the KRG and the people of Kurdistan," Erbil’s statement said.

"This policy is contrary to the constitution, the law and all international conventions and basic principles of human rights," it declared.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani called for a unified Kurdish stance on Baghdad’s economic blockade on Erbil, in a recent meeting with Kurdish MPs in the Iraqi parliament, Kurdish ministers and other senior officials in Baghdad as well as the head of the parliamentary

blocs in the Kurdish parliament.

The KRG stressed that it has chosen dialogue to resolve the issue, “although there are other options available to the Kurdistan Regional Government to provide its budget share to ensure the salaries and needs of its citizens."

"We ask the Iraqi Prime Minister to stop this illegal and unconstitutional policy and send the region's share of the budget and salaries as a constitutional right for the region," the KRG said in the statement.