Written by Edu Montesanti; Originally appeared at Global Research
On September 25, 92 percent from the total of 8.4 million of Iraqi Kurds have voted “yes” to independence on the Iraqi Kurdish referendum, on whether to secede from the Iraqi territory. That was a symbolic step for the world’s largest ethnic group composed by more than 30 million people spread across five countries, to settle a homeland of their own in northern Iraq where the Iraqi Kurdistan is made up of three provinces run by an autonomous regional government, and protected by their own security services.
The Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Haidar Mansour Hadi has pointed out to Pravda that
“the referendum was a severe violation to the Iraqi Constitution, that represents the social contract between all Iraqi components, ratified by the Kurdish people in a way exceeded other Iraqi provinces: Erbil 99.36%, Dohuk 99.13% and Sulaimania 98.96% votes.”
Noting that the people who are claiming to secede from Iraq are genuine participants in the Federal Government since 2003, the Iraqi official said that the Kurds cannot justify a secession. “The Kurdish people are part of Iraqi people.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has called on foreign states to stop cooperating with the the Iraq’s autonomous and oil-rich Kurdish on issues in the oil sector, and also demanded that all border posts with Turkey, Syria and Iran be placed under Baghdad’s supervision, closing airports. Turkey also responded aggressively, threatening military action and sanctions in order to force the Kurds to “give up on this adventure that can only have a dark end.”
As the Kurdish leadership is claiming that Baghdad government is punishing the Kurdish people by closing borders and airports, for trying to express their rights, Ambassador Haidar has observed that the Iraqi Federal Government has full rights to control the airports in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, subject all border crossings to federal authorities and close all non-official ports.
“As the Kurdish people are part of Iraqi people, the governmental procedures are basically addressed to deter the Kurdish government for fragmenting Iraq’s unity and preserve its regional position,” he said.
“Oil exporting, foreign trade, investments, bank transactions and the diplomatic and consulate representations are subjected to the federal government authority,” added the Iraqi diplomat to Russia.
The international community and regional neighbors have opposed the referendum, but there is only one government all over the world which has openly supported it: the State of Israel, year by year condemned by several international organizations for crimes against humanity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
An Iraq senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity to this report, has stated that
“Tel Aviv is only interested on weaken Iraq.”
Ambassador Haidar adds that,
“the Kurdish people are part of Iraqi people, and the governmental procedures are basically addressed to deter the Kurdish government for fragmenting Iraq’s unity, and preserve its regional position.”
As Lebanese journalist and political commentator Osama al-Sharif wrote in the Jordan Times,
“Netanyahu and his far right allies know very well that a unilateral Kurdish decision to cede from Iraq in the absence of an agreement over a number of contentious issues, least of which is the future of oil-rich Kirkuk province, would trigger a civil war that is likely to spill over.”
In the mid 1960s and 70s, Mossad planned and funded a Kurdish Army to fight Iraqi troops in northern Iraq, and other Israel enemies in the Middle East: Syria and Egypt. One of Zionists’s partner then was Mullah Mustafa Barzani, Masoud Barzani’s father, currently the (illegal) President of Kurdistan, and Nechirvan Idris Barzani‘s grandfather, Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) a nephew of Masoud Barzani, who rules the region without any legal basis since 2015: in 2013 he concluded his eight-year term in the Kurdish Presidency, extended by two years by the local Parliament but, since the mandate totally expired, Barzani has prevented the Members of Parliament from setting up new elections.
As observed the website The Moon of Alabama, Barzani’s corrupted power has also been propelled by the United States oil interests in the region.
“The Kurds pumped and sold oil without the consent of Baghdad. Corruption rules in Kurdistan and the regional government had to rob local banks to find fresh money. That still wasn’t enough to pay salaries. The Barzani family mafia has robbed the region blind. To keep going, the local government needs to annex more riches and widen its business base.”
In August 24, 2015, The Jerusalem Post reported,
“Majority of Israeli Oil Imported from Kurdistan [report title]. Importing crude from Erbil [capital of the KRG] could be geopolitically, economically favorable for Jerusalem. Israel had imported as much as 77 percent of its oil supply from Kurdistan [KRG] in recent months, bringing in some 19 million barrels between the beginning of May and August 11. During that period, more than a third of all northern Iraqi [KRG] exports, shipped through Turkey’s Ceyhan port, went to Israel, with transactions amounting to almost $1 billion.”
Recently reported on teleSUR English on September 26,
“an official within Iran’s Expediency Council, Ali Akbar Velayati, stated before the vote that the existence of a secessionist Kurdish state in Iraq would only benefit the United States and the Zionist regime of Israel, both of whom seek to “colonize and dominate” the Middle East.”
Asked about the Kurdish claim that the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State group after it overwhelmed the Iraqi Army in 2014, Ambassador Haidar stated that the Kurdish referendum undermines the international efforts to combat terrorism, especially the battle against Daesh:
“It’s considered a danger on the security of the region. Not just Kurdistan fought ISIS. All Iraqis fought hand in hand and sacrificed their lives in order to win the war against ISIS.”
“Since 2003, our Kurdish brothers were an important part of the Iraqi political process we together, as Iraqis, worked closely to convince the US-led forces to leave Iraq after signing a strategic agree with the United States,” added the Iraqi Ambassador.
Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said, previously to the vote, that Kurds will not declare independence, but “will engage in serious negotiations with Baghdad.” Ambassador Haidar observes that from the beginning, Kurds want their own independent state.
“I would strongly disagree with what Prime Minister of Kurdistan said.”
“The Federal Government in Baghdad refuses any negotiation with the Kurdish leadership, unless they admit the referendum results are void, and the referendum itself is a violation of the Constitution,” remarked the Iraqi diplomat to Moscow.
It must be an awful existence if you align your interests with destruction, death and suffering of others. It eats your soul up and leaves you with a hole inside which can never be filled.
I pity Zionists and pity their goons even more.
holookaust ????? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZJKqPqvFi8
Excellent review all in all , I just want to add only that the majority in the leadership of PKK/ YPG has shifted away from anarcho-marxists followers of Ocalan, to western-inspired Barzani-type opportunist amoralists. Since last spring through internal procedures. Ocalan’s name and heritage directions are only used for fudging purposes.
The PKK/YPG are just fraudsters no matter how you call it , they are thieving opportunists they have been in the company of Israeli Zionists for too long.
Yes, the 30 year civil war in turkey, the establishment of autonomous democracy amongst the residents of northern Syria, and the destruction of ISIS are all “fraudulent”. Ah look, you even managed to use the word “Zionist”. Bravo!
the destruction of ISIS isn’t at all a Kurdish thing. They would had been destroyed along Syria if Russia and Iran didn’t intervene.
Kurds managed to hold on and avoid being overrun that’s their only merit, and only have to thank the above intervention if they are still in place and able to declare independence after betraying all possible friends they made by siding up with Israel and yanks.
International community will not recognize the new country and Israel will have to get in directly if it wants to defend it. And at that point they’ll face Turkey, Iran, Irak, Syria and possibly Russia.
Nice move indeed, it could had been a step towards peace and stability, but they couldn’t wait when the criminals in Telaviv gave their blessings on the referendum.
The Kurdish people have exactly the same right as the Catalan people the people of Scotland the people of Korsika or the Bretagne or the Basques the Tibetans etc. to self determination self government and statehood if they vote with sufficient majority for that. And exactly that they did. Your antisemitism already has eaten the unhealthy stuff you call your brain for the larger part
Technically, the right of self determination applies when people incorporate themselves as a country. And, a state is made up of the people who come together among other things. It is when these countries act on its own, decides on its own that the country and its people exercises self determination. Now when there is a minority within the country who want to separate and exercise their own “self determination”, that is now doing violence to the first act of forming themselves into a country. The minority’s act is at the expense of the self determination of the first incorporation and carves up another component of the state which is territory. Now this is today compounded by provocateurs who agitate these minorities and those who spout and misapply the phrase right to self determination. Now consider if every LGBTQ, would one day say, they want their own country. Or some other religious group in your country would say they want their own country. Or some people with a different set of beliefs, religious or otherwise would say they want to break out from your own country. Or the immigrants in your country say they want to separate. Or even a different ethnic group in your country would also do the same. If a family decides that its house, the land it is on, and its members would no longer be citizens of its country, would that be fine? Seven billion states is that reasonable? Its the same thing as what you are espousing. And this is already an affront/violence/crime to the sovereignty and self determination of a country/people. Back then, people revolted and sometimes won their freedom from their masters. That was self determination. Nowadays, is different. There is supposed to be no more slavery or colonialism. Feelings of differences are petty. Grievances/killings should now be answered through the recourse of rules and law, sometimes booting those in power who are responsible. In sum, most rights are usually within the framework of a state and at times has limitations. People can do things within the bounds of law. People can believe on things within the confines of law. People can work for something within the confines of law and state even if they are a bit different. The above is legalistic and ideal. However, history can and usually has another course and march.
Iraq never was „incorporated by (the) ‚people‘ themselves as a country“. There wasn’t in the entire history a ‚people‘ of Iraq, most certainly there wasn’t neither a country imagined called ‚Iraq‘ nor any of a possible people of this fictional country. Iraq wasn’t incorporated by people themselves as a country, but artificially without the slightest respect for any such fictional people created by Great Britain and France at the end of WWI and the borders of this creature then finally determined in the Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916. What we see now in the ME is the painful way of overcoming Sykes-Picot where this process is obfuscated by foreign interventions, Islamic fundamentalism and the Sunni Shia schism, Turkish Nationalism and Iranian expansionism. It is a fact, that the aftermath of this Agreement is the single most relevant real cause for the ongoing instability of this part of the ME. The Kurdish people to the opposite is one of the oldest homogeneous people in this region settling in exactly these territories they live in today. The documented history of the Kurds outdates the history of the Osman Turks for more than thousand years and matches the history of Iran/Persia and dates back longer than the Armenian documented history. Kurds settled in said territories long before there had been any presence of an Arab population in any part of today’s Iraq or Syria! Kurds like the in my post mentioned Scotish, Catalan, Korsikan Basque etc qualify as a people that is at any time perfectly entitled to selfdetermination and statehood for their original historic and ethnic authentic identity. ‚Iraquis‘ never did, in fact they never existed as a people and do not exist as such today, Iraquis are as much an European invention as Iraq itself. I wonder how someone seemingly not completely uneducated like you can try to fool others with irrelevant and with respect to the well known facts incoherent drivel.
It remains to be seen whether the problems of today was caused by an old agreement. I would have to differ. Neither are your alleged facts conclusive. There are a lot of things that are imperfect about the agreement but these sovereign states whose territory must be respected, are already existing facts on the ground and have been prevailing for a long time. It might be a European invention but it is what we have right now and what has existed for so long. It is what the modern Kurds have been born into. And there is an existing legal State over it. What is more apparent is the refusal to unite/cooperate/work together/intolerance that drives these movements. Anyone’s long history/tradition/past does not excuse him from living together with his countrymen. That was then, this is now. It does not entitle one to be different. It does not entitle one to treat them as different. If what was long ancient would be allowed to have any say in today’s world, then congratulations, you’ve encouraged more violence. You’ve encouraged division. In the end, you’re just destabilizing the Middle East. Whose agenda are you encouraging? One might have the grandest history or tradition but they still bleed like everybody else. Generally, we are not our ancestors. We find ourselves here right now, with other persons, trying to live in peace.
States and Nations are for people. And people in nearly all cases define themselves by common language, common customs, traditions, common heritage and common hopes, visions, aspirations. In not any single case of the separatist movements I’ve mentioned there is an aggressive element directed against others, the aggression is directed against those who rightfully want to determine their common future as free people in their own state. Obviously no single person or family is a people so why prattle you about 7 Billion people? My definitions of what people are standard and common sense, your pretended ignorance indicates other motives than just uttering irrelevant distraction
Kurdish are historically Persian , the language is Persian based as well . The western province of Iran , is called Kordistan . However this western Persian province for the last two or three thousand years has been overrun by multiple kingdoms and is fractured by so many divisions , it is barely recognizable , except that they are Caucasian , like the Persians . Race is not a solid foundation for a nation. In today’s world when a group of people collude with an enemy of the nation , it is called sedition , or treason . The US has been at war with Iraq since 2003 , and Syria since 2006 . America supported the jihadist proxy armies of Al Qaeda and ISIS , who were set against all the peoples of those nations , including the Kurdish . In both nations they have been granted a large degree of autonomy . To try to move that autonomy into nationhood , enlisting the support of the very nation that has been waging war on you and your neighbors , is truly treasonous and short sighted .
The Kurds most probably are descendant from the Medes, there is strong archeological and ethnological evidence for this. The Medes originally lived in territories of today northwestern Iran. But the Medes are not the same as the ‚Persian‘ if these are meant to be the people the majority of today Iranians allegedly are descendant from. The US neither is or was in war with Iraq or Syria, but helped in Iraq to get rid of a brutal illegitimate dictator and failed in Syria to get rid of a not so brutal but not less illegitimate Strawman for a minority rule, who inherited his ‚Presidency‘ from his father, who then could have stand any contest in brutality and massmurdership with Saddam Hussein
I am neither Kurdish , Persian or American , so I it does not matter to me if you choose to deny the Kurds Persian roots . Maybe because Iran is now Muslim and therefore , “the enemy” , anyway , that past is long gone . For you to state “The US neither is or was in war with Iraq or Syria” , tells me you have been spoon fed CNN , and will believe anything the US feeds you . The US put Saddam Hussein into power , and gave him the chemical bombs to gas the Kurds with . While I love the Kurds , they are massively uneducated . To claim the 2003 US invasion of Iraq was “helping… to get rid of … a dictator”, is classic double talk . Good Luck dancing with evil .
The question, if Kurds are descendant from the Medes or not, has nothing to do with the fact, that the majority of the Iranian of today are Shia Muslim. The majority of archeoethnologists support the assumption that the Kurds are descendant from the Medes. CNN is a degenerate and meanwhile also utterly unprofessional mock of a news media, I wouldn’t even swallow half a teaspoon of their stuff. Saddam Hussein WAS a potentially genocidal dictator and yes he had been supported by the USA to be used against Iran. With hindsight that was again a very shortsided tactical alliance from the side of the USA. The situation already before had been deteriorated by the idiotic or worse politics of Jimmy Carter, whose foolishness or worse was responsible for loosing Iran as a natural ally. And no, I don’t say the US should have tried to keep the Schah in power. There are many evils one can dance with, Putin and Chamenei qualify for last Tango.
“I just want to add only that the majority in the leadership of PKK/ YPG has shifted away from anarcho-marxists followers of Ocalan, to western-inspired Barzani-type opportunist amoralists” – utterly clueless gibberish. First off PKK and YPG are two separate organisations with 2 different sets of leadership – one is Turkish Kurdish, the other is Syrian. Secondly, the federation of northern Syria is democratic confederalist. You thought it was an “excellent review”. You are a moron. Having checked your recent history, I can conclude that you are a racist moron. Congratulations.
asides the insults, that does not change that both Syrian and Iraqi Kurds have become another whore in Israel’s harem, which is the point of the op.
A point on which the largest majority of people interested in peace and safety concur on.
Another dumb article written from a perspective of braindead racism. Different day, same old crap.
Tel Aviv is only interested in weakening every country which is not Israel.