Infighting could cost the Kurds many friends

The last two weeks were arguably the most difficult for the Kurdish region since the end of the civil war in the late 1990s. Not paid their salaries for three months and frustrated with endless rounds of talks among parties over the future of the political system, people took to the streets in Sulaimani and a few smaller towns.

The rallies turned ugly, political party branches and media offices were attacked and torched. Civilians were also killed and wounded.

This only deepened the political crisis where the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Change Movement (Gorran) who had a coalition government split, ministers and speaker of parliament sacked.

This kind of crisis is domestic in every sense, but for the Kurds and at this time in particular, it has global consequences. International support for the KRG in the last 18 months has been unprecedented. On the political and diplomatic level, Erbil has become a center of gravity where world leaders and diplomats gather to discuss developments the Middle East.

Militarily, dozens of countries have supplied the Kurdish forces with modern weapons and ammunition while their advisors and trainers are on the ground to upgrade the technical capabilities of the Peshmerga.

The United States even relocated the Mosul Operation Center from Baghdad to Erbil.

In the meantime, the world has turned a blind eye on KRG’s oil exports while just several months ago tankers carrying Kurdish oil had to change route several times due to legal issues.

The KRG now sells up to 700,000 barrels of oil per day via Turkey to the world’s tacit approval.

The above changes have come at a price and that is the Peshmerga’s bravery and sacrifice in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS). The Peshmerga won the respect of the world, but the ongoing political crisis might damage that.

The Kurds have many supporters in the US in the form of politicians and journalists, but there are also those who believe they should not be armed as they might turn the guns on each other.

The political tit-for-tat rivalry in Kurdistan, unfortunately, gives credence to the anti-Kurdish camp in the west.

Kurdish officials have been proudly saying that the Peshmerga are the bulwark against the ISIS threat, but they must back it up with political tolerance.

There are dozens foreign diplomatic missions in Erbil who are keeping an eye on everything and any political blunder at this stage will cost the Kurds dearly as was the case with our dream for a state after the First World War.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.