While Iraqi Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani has claimed victory in independence referendum ahead of votes tallied, the pressure on Kurdistan is growing. With the results supporting independence expected on Thursday, the Kurds are preparing a mandate to negotiate secession.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider-al Abadi has already denounced the mandate as “unconstitutional” and refused entering negotiations with KRG, demanding that control of Erbil and Sulaymaniya airports be handed over to Iraq’s central government by Friday.
This also spurned the reaction from the other countries opposing the referendum. Most notably, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gone on record saying: “If Barzani and the Kurdish Regional Government do not go back on this mistake as soon as possible, they will go down in history with the shame of having drawn the region into an ethnic and sectarian war”.
Both Turkey and Iran, fearing separatist unrest in their own Kurdish minorities, threatened to close borders and impose sanctions on oil exports. “It will be over when we close the oil taps, all [their] revenues will vanish, and they will not be able to find food when our trucks stop going to northern Iraq,” said President Erdogan. As Kurdistan depends on Turkey’s food export and transit of their oil to Europe by pipeline, Turkey is capable of landing a devastating economic blow to Kurdistan. The trade between Turkey and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is worth more than $10 billion.
Barzani appealed for peace and dialogue. “We assure the international community that we are committed to a dialogue process with Baghdad,” he said. “Threats will solve nothing.”
“It will be over when we close the oil taps, all [their] revenues will vanish, and they will not be able to find food when our trucks stop going to northern Iraq,” said President Erdogan.
Well history has shown that it is almost impossible to exterminate a race from the face of the earth and as such it is impossible to completely eliminate progress. What it means is that when one route is closed another is bound to open. It may take time but will. So if the only thing standing on their way of statehood is as said above, I’m sure the Kurds would even be dancing more in the streets.
Of note – firstly, there is absolutely no attempt at a Kurdish genocide currently going on as your comment would appear to imply, and secondly, Kurds consist of an ethnic group not a ‘race’.
Problem of them being an “ethnic group” is one diverse as North Americans and South Americans and maybe more so than than people living there.
More war coming. No Kurdish refugees to Western countries.
“negotiations” are pointless…
Just start shooting and get it over with….
If Iraq gains control of the Kurdish regions airports, its all over, they will be completely shut off from all possible imports and exports!
can also bomb the pipeline.
The Iraqi forces have been trained and equipped by the US for the past few years, they should have enough to deal with the rebellious province. Just bomb the airport, destroy the pipelines, close the borders. Isolate them until they say sorry and go back with being happy being just a province of Iraq and not an independent state. There’s no need for Turkey to get involved, I think the Iraqis are more than enough to deal with the issue