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A pedestrian in a mask walks along Westminster Bridge with the London Eye in the background, central London, March 25, 2020. File photo: Tolga Akmen / AFP
We had planned to be in the Kurdistan Region this week, to catch up with old friends and get the latest on all the major issues affecting the Kurdistani people. But with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, this has sadly proved impossible. We have also been forced to postpone a major solidarity rally in the British parliament marking the anniversary of Halabja and to remember the Anfal genocide.
We hope to return to Kurdistan as soon as possible, but the course of the coronavirus may be considerably longer than anyone expected just a few weeks ago. I am not sure whether it can be done this year at all.
However, we wanted to make it clear that we haven’t forgotten our pledge of friendship to the people of Kurdistan. I have therefore sent a letter to Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, tabled a House of Commons motion, and a parliamentary question regarding possible British action to help the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) beat the coronavirus.
My short letter is as follows:
“Dear Prime Minister,
I am writing on behalf of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq to send you our best wishes as you begin a new year in tough circumstances.
We had planned to be in Kurdistan this week but, sadly, that proved impossible. We fully intend to visit Kurdistan as soon as it is practicable. We are keen to renew our links with you and the Kurdistani people and to obtain up-to-date information that can drive our continuing campaign to advance the bilateral relationship between the UK and the Kurdistan Region.
From afar, we can see that your government has formulated a coherent response to the coronavirus crisis.
Your government’s determination to tackle coronavirus has been widely noted and provides powerful arguments about the political health of the Kurdistan Region.
We are urging the UK government’s Department for International Development to respond as generously as possible to your government’s requests for assistance with medical supplies to tackle the virus.
However, we also recognise that the coronavirus crisis is compounded by massive falls in oil prices and continuing and grave political crisis in the rest of Iraq.
We believe that the traditional resilience of the Kurdistani people will once again ensure they weather these crises. Please rest assured that we are thinking of you. Kurdistanis have a special place in our hearts.
Please let me know if there are any specific actions we and our government can take in these trying times.”
Rudaw reports that Kurdistan currently has just 200 ventilators for a population of about six million people – one ventilator per 30,000 people. The KRG has asked the British and other governments to help supply vital medical equipment. My question to the Department for International Development simply asks for action on this point.
The principle of the British government’s actions domestically is to do whatever it takes to save people and businesses from going under. The virus will one day be defeated and we need as many people and businesses to be ready to resume normal business.
The same principle should apply to our key and dear allies. Of all people, the Kurds have again and again survived the worst that history has thrown at them. We are sure the Kurds in Iraq will rise to the moment and, in very difficult times, survive.
We are all ruthlessly focused on the virus, but our other enemies are still active. Helping keep Kurdistan healthy is vital in itself and also important to ensure that there is a strong bulwark against extremism. None of us wants the Islamic State (ISIS/Daesh) to benefit in any way from this virus.
Our reaching out to the Kurds now is a small symbol of our longer-term commitment and the recognition that it is in the national interest of the UK’s foreign and security policy that the Kurds come through this as unscathed as possible.
We wish we could do more, but the British government has its work cut out. Our plea is that we remember our good friends in the hard times we all face. We wish you all the best in this emergency.
The Rt Honourable Robert Halfon is the MP for Harlow and the Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on the Kurdistan Region in Iraq
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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