The separatist Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has de-facto declared a surrender in the ongoing standoff against the Iraqi Federal Government, promised to “freeze the results of [independence] referendum”, and asked for “an open dialogue between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi Federal Government on the basis of the Consititution.”
On September 25, the KRG held an independence referendum an area controlled by its military forces in northern Iraq, including a number of areas that are not a part of the Kurdish autonomous region like the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. KRG President Masoud Barzani and its regional government were seeking to use the referendum to turn a large part of nonrthern Iraq into an independent Kurdish state and rejecting any attempts of the Federal Government to establish a dialogue within the Iraqi Constitution.
On October 16, the Iraqi Army, the Federal Police and the Counter-Terrorism Service, supported by local members of the Popular Mobilization Units, launched a limited security operation to re-gain contested areas from the KRG. The KRG’s military force, the Peshmerga, showed its inability to counter even this limited effort and lost Kirkuk city, its oil-rich countryside as well as many areas across northern Iraq.
On October 24, the Department of Foreign Relations of the KRG released a statement suggesting the Federal Government next points:
1. Immediate ceasefire and halt all military operations in the Kurdistan Region.
2. Freeze the results of referendum conducted in the Iraqi Kurdistan.
3. Start an open dialogue between the Kurdistan Regional Government and Iraqi Federal Government on the basis of the Consititution.
The statement argues that “continued fighting does not lead any side to victory, but it will drive the country towards disarray and chaos, affecting all aspects of life.” However, it’s clear who was the initiator and losing side of the observed conflict.
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The Kurds are playing with the Time, finish them now!
A wise move, but they have now shown their true colours and weakened themselves on the World stage. That’ll teach them.
Not frees but annule it should state. Barzani is trying to save his loot.
And the Barzani gang should resign.
Resign? No, arrested and given life doing hard work.
True, at the bare minimum all of their illegally obtained property (which is almost all of it) should be nationalized and put to a good use (thought I don’t know what good use can there be for expensive sports cars, guess sell them to some rich Saudi or whatever asshole and use the money to to rebuild and pay the workers).
Why should one particular group in one specific region have a different status from another ‘group’ in the same region like Yezidi’s or whatever? National borders should be kept and the government should show respect just as others should respect the government. And I’m absolutely against the death penalty. Kurdistan is just a US/Israel creation in order to sow war in the region. They just want to split up countries like before the Ottoman empire and create a new Libya, a country with no government and instead perpetual war.
Just imagine if Iraq grants KAR with independence now! That would be funny.
That would be some country without Iraq forcing to pay it’s expenses. Almost no agriculture, no industries, no exports, landlocked and with very few oil to sell, if they can sell it.
KRG should happily accept, after all, their “3000” years old wish comes true and they would be “free”.
Just read regarding Peshmerga terrorist video gloating of Iraqi soldiers it executed after trickery.
http://www.fort-russ.com/2017/10/video-kurdish-peshmerga-execute-two.html
As far as I’m concerned, any Peshmerga caught outside of Kurdistan proper should be executed on sight. If such events occur again, autonomy removal for Kurdistan is a proper response. Kurdistan should receive nothing more than what it possessed when it acquired it’s autonomy.
Why should one particular group in one specific region have a different status from another ‘group’ in the same region like Yezidi’s or whatever? National borders should be kept and the government should show respect just as others should respect the government. And I’m absolutely against the death penalty. Kurdistan is just a US/Israel creation in order to sow war in the region. They just want to split up countries like before the Ottoman empire and create a new Libya, a country with no government and instead perpetual war.
I would agree, but what the Peshmerga are doing is terrorism and they are traitors to their country; Syria as well. I have no tolerance for terrorists regardless of stripes.
I agree, but they are cannon fodder for Israel and the US. What happened with the Yezidis is a huge scandal and it showed Barzani cooperated with ISIS and his Israeli-US masters. Just as before he was friends with Saddam Hussein; He must have made fortune from selling his people.
agreed.
Iraqi Government to KRG 1. Declare the referundum void. 2. Return all boarder crossing to held by KRG to Iraqi Government. 3. Barzani resign for promoting illegal Referendum.
Maybe then we will have something to talk about..
The Irony is that Iraq offered the negotiation based on the constitution before this operations and even offered that they jointly govern the occupied areas by KRG.
Barzani didn’t accept and said we have nothing to discuss with Iraq government, which from now on is just a neighbouring country.
True indeed. Barzani overplayed his hand and now lacks any considerable leverage to negotiate. At this point, he is at the Mercy of the Iraqi Government. Weather the Iraqi Government implements any of the 3 scenarios I listed, in any way shape or form remains to be seen. However I suspect that at least one of the 3 scenarios will eventually become reality in the Short term.
My kurdish friends told me after referandom that soon you need to get Kurdish visa :) I laughed and told him to wait and see whats coming for them and thank god this came true. Iraq is iraq and will never be carved up on sect lines. Barzani stole oil money to profit for his family but those days are over now. he and his clan show resign immidietly. This happened because they were not united and talabani clan did the best thing by widrawing and making deal with iraqi goverment. so not all kurdish had this in mind
It would appear that the KRG is up shit creek and getting desperate. Only those who are desperate to escape their fate would offer terms to surrender. The trick is to keep pushing to the point that they offer even better terms of surrender, but not so much that they realize they have nothing left to lose so they go and keep on fighting.
The referendum was a complete miscalculation. 1) the timing totally sucked – Iraq is fighting a dangerous insurgency and the Kurds had taken many areas opportunistically; 2) Kurds are not as united as it may seem from the outside – a wish for independence is natural, but there was a huge amount of cheating going on in the referendum; 3) waving Israeli flags was a pr suicide – after that many sympathisers in the world just turned off and the world was essentially against it! Personally I think Israel was pushing the independence agenda, but it was half cooked and came undone! Glad that project is off the agenda for a while.
I hope Iraq gains control of all the oil exporting pipelines and metering stations and deduct the revenues lost over the years from the Kurdish share. Also control the volumes so that the kurds and their enablers suffer the consequences of their treachery. Iraq should also reduce their status to semi-autonomous, ensure there is no continuous land link between The Syrian Kurds and the Iraqi ones, and control all border posts and international airports as well as limit the caliber of their weapons.
That’s exactly why KRG panicked and released this statement at 3 in the morning. The statement came immediately after Iraqi forces liberated Ibrahim Khalil border crossing which holds Iraqi oil pipeline to Turkey. Iraq previously liberated Rabi’a and Faish Khabur crossings which cuts the way between Iraqi Kurds and Syrian PKK.
This takes it out of the control of Turkey’s possible double dealing for purposes of embargo of Iraqi oil transport, and all other trade of import and export to include transit of terrorist groups and weapons. Brilliant!
Floyd Hazzard – semi-autonomous? They are in no position to dictate terms. In fact, I suspect they would be grateful to be kept within Iraq. This was inevitable – the only viability of “autonomous Syrian Rojova (or whatever they are calling it)” was with an “autonomous Kurdistan” on the border. Now both “Kurdish countries” are isolated and useless. Oil needs pipelines to be viable long-term, especially with the memories of those bombed out oil trucks from ISIS still fresh. Now they are reduced to a worse condition than under Saddam – great work, guys! I wonder if Barzani is planning a “holiday” to Israel…
Ending in Iraq the only way it could. It will end in Syria the same way in spite of SDF, and it’s US backed Isis allies, currently in control of the oil fields.
Shitty Americans have abandoned the Kurds like the British abandoned us against the hordes of Kemal Ataturk. Russia needs to step up and support the Kurds.
haha self entitled turds are delusional. You people are too low for anyone to want to associate with you except the isreali nutters. enjoy waving those flags while you turds starve to death.
I am not Kurd, I am Greek but I am pro-Kurd and pro-Israel.
Could you clarify that a little more? Are you a zionist? Are you thinking you are a part of Empire and benefits from that? Splain yourself Lucy…….
Nope, I am not pro-EU. However, the ones that raped us have been our politicians.
Pro-Israel, eh? You do realize that the endorsement of Israel for the Kurdish referendum was effectively a sentence of death for the “Kurdistan” project, don’t you? The Arabs of Palestine got screwed first by the creation of Israel and ongoing brutal occupation – that is why Israel is universally loathed. Nobody asked the Palestinians what they thought about being punished for the crimes of Europe against Jews. The fact that Israel has worked tirelessly to be a lousy neighbour and an even worse occupier since hasn’t helped.
Death of the Kurdistan project? This project is very much alive. The so called Arabs of Palestine were given 5 times the chance to build a state but they refused and wanted to exterminate Israel.
Time to advance right to the outskirts of Erbil and all border points between Iraq, Turkey and Iran still controlled by the terrorist Kurd gunmen.
Well that could be accomplished with a solid border Golan Heights type of boundary which would remove some territory from Kurd control of any trade or nefarious Kurd dealing outside of state control, taxes and regulations to name a few.
Seems like Kurds are starting to sense that it’s not as nice and rosy as Israel promised them.
It’s comical the Barzani gang releasing a bullet-point of demands after running for their lives.