On Thursday, officials from the UN, the US, and the UK met with President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani to propose a plan to delay an independence referendum – scheduled on September 25 – for two years, according to Kurdish sources.
The sources said that the US, the UN and the UK are worried that the referendum might have a negative effect on the ongoing war on ISIS.
Special Presidential Envoy for the US-led coalition Brett McGurk said during a press conference in Erbil that he hopes the Iraqi Kurdish leadership will accept the plan to delay the referendum. Moreover, Brett McGurk described the Kurdistan region referendum as a “risky” move because there is no international support for it at this moment.
“We did of course reiterate the position of the United States that this referendum is ill time and it is not something that we can support,” McGurk said at the press conference.
From its said the Kurdistan Region Presidency (KRP) said that Barzani will discuss the proposed alternative plan with the leadership of Kurdistan and to respond officially to it later.
However, Kurdish sources reported that Barzani said on Thursday at a public gathering in support of the upcoming referendum in Zakho city that the referendum will not be delayed. Barzani also said at Zakho that the Iraqi government didn’t leave any space for negotiations.
In a related development, Tukey Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag called the Kurdistan region upcoming independents referendum a “historic mistake”. Furthermore, Bozdag welcomed the Iraqi Parliament rejection of the referendum.
“Barzani’s referendum decision is a historic mistake. Turkey will follow policies that take Iraq’s territorial integrity as a basis … The northern Iraq referendum must be canceled, if not it will have a cost and retribution,” Bozdag said.
On Thursday, the Iraqi Parliament in a majority vote decided to remove the Kurdish governor of Kirkuk, Najmaldin Karim who is a supporter of the Kurdistan Region independence. Karim also backed the idea to hold the vote in the province of Kirkuk that is not a part of Iraqi Kurdistan Region.
So far, the majority of Iraqis including Sunnis, Shiites, Turkmen and Assyrians have opposed to the Kurdistan Region independence referendum. Many Kurdish parties and public figures also stand against the referendum that could place Kurdistan Region under siege, or even could start a war.
” The sources said that the US, the UN and the UK are worried that the referendum might have a negative effect on the ongoing war on ISIS.”
I would think the real reason is that the US and UK do not want the Turkish Army to suppress the Kurds in Iraq and Syria and by doing so confront the US military directly. Perhaps the US hopes that Erdogan will have been shot in 2 years time.
Yup, this referendum if it succeeds would put the UK and US in an impossible position. They will lose allies no matter which side they pick and if they don’t pick a side they will lose them as well. And a war on ISIS by the US or UK exists just in the media.
This makes exclellent sense; especially as the first US coup attempt ended in abject failure. Ever wondered why the Russian Ambassador was shot in Ankara? Who warned Erdogan of the US inspired coup?
The killer of the Russian ambassador earlier this year in Ankara used his Left hand to signal the raised outstretched finger that symbolises ‘One God ‘. That struck me as rather odd at the time as ALL the other One God images I have seen always use the Right hand that is the Clean Hand. If I am correct in thinking this, there are a few unanswered questions as to the killers provenance.
Fascinating! I’d forgotten that important, albeit seemingly insignificant, fact. Thanks for posting!
The Devil is always in the detail and religious customs and taboos are multi faceted. Americans are not historically very adept at understanding other cultures. That is why they rarely Win the Peace.
There’s nothing I can add to your commentiary as it’s 100% correct! By and large, the Americans are culturally crass or blind. One has to remember that the US in most ways is an Island in its mentality and not a continent. It’s separated from the rest of humanity by two of the largest oceans. Hence the thinking is insular, and having one of the world’s most corrupt and incompetent medias sustains this high degree of ignorance. The US is, in a nutshell, its own worst enemy!
Blame the US, UK,France and Germany for opening ” Pandora’s box” by trying to create a sectarian divide their tactics seem to have worked on the Kurds. They are having problems of developing this with the secular Iraqis as they have become more bonded together with the same common issues facing them and fear for their country.
The Kurds are always so gullible like ISIS recruits they already have ingrained hatred as they see all others as lesser than them, making them easily targeted by the propaganda. This referendum the West knows will backfire and blow up the Middle east, and could expose the actions of certain countries in the Conflict of the Middle East.
Don’t be too hard on the Kurds, TCW. I actually WANT this to go to a vote – mostly because the majority of Iraqi Kurds absolutely hate mob-boss Barzani and his mafia-like clan in charge. They will vote against independence simply because most of them do NOT want to live in an independent Iraqi Kurdistan controlled by Barzani. That’s assuming a fair vote, but that’s probably a stupid assumption. One of Barzani’s brother-in-laws will likely be responsible for counting the votes. Barzani already lives in a palace; he wants to be crowned King of the Kurds to go along with that.
Damn near everything we hear about Iraqi Kurdistan is a lie originating from the Barzani ‘state’ or Barzani-run newspapers. He and his extended family are parasites feeding on stolen Iraqi oil. None of that money ever seems to make it to the little people Kurds.
I am hard because you can’t let up the slightest as they are no different than populations in the west as to calling their govt on anything. The destruction of ethnic cultures by the Kurds has been done with intention, Yezidi and Assyrians all being forced to become Kurds. The Zaza come from Georgia and are distinctly different language and culture being forced to speak Kurdish only. This has happened with many as they kill the parents and convert their children in Syria and Iraq nowadays.
These to me are crimes against humanity that can never be forgiven.
Mossad Barzani
http://www.islamicinvitationturkey.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/mossad-barzani1.jpg
so said the zio satanic losers, funders of terrorism – root of all evil
Who gonna accept disintegration of Iraq and Syria and creation of West backed Kurdish states like Israel. This is completely nonsense try of West.
There is an reason for some of us to react to this referendum, because it is faking of history, where one is high jacking the region, and ignores the rest, why, because I know exactly whats going on, I could give it to you the whole scrap book but its now in the open for you all. The second is that I have to same problem, one “tribe” gets all the power, and ignores the rest, fakes history to fit the official narrative of an native people, all based upon what is the situation for the last 50 years, where the population have grown exponentially and now this One tribe is bigger than the rest, and that is been high jacked to fit what the present population is supposedly is reflecting by the numbers. That is an demographic lie, and used to make it easier to chose an “tribe” witch gets the historical pedigree for the entire region.
Other methods is genetics, witch dont lie. The same again, they use OUR blood to justify Their existence and an Group while they them self have never undergone this kinds of screenings, while my people have. And on top of it, whats really the case, is that our “vikings” in the south whines about an African been an Norwegian is he stays here for 2- or more generations, but if you want to be an Sami ( the North Sami “tribe”, have an100% fake history, period, witch is like the Kurds one, been institutionalized, and derby the “truth”, since the lies comes from “educated” people and universities) you can be that in 5 minutes, yeah, even their Sami Gov. president wasnt even born in the north, huh, but hey, He dressed as an “native” and looked like an “native” and spoke “native” so He must be an “native” (He grew up there, not born). Yeah, and we have non to represent us, nobody, but in the history books, they stole everything we had and stole our history, because their own is an flat out lie, period, this method is what the west and the MSM is pimping hard this days, fake everything, and the problem is this faking have been ongoing for decades, and have become the “truth” incl in “science and education”. This is the short explanation, an more detailed needs to await.
I have nothing against Kurds, nada, but their political coals is what I attack not Kurds in general, and again because this path is an dark one, everybody knows this, just look at Israel. Kurdistan is for me, Israel 2.0, nothing else.
The people forgets this, all most everything, incl the Kurds, have been either used or misused, depends on what was and/or is the present goal, pinned everybody against each others, and wars was made, but never forget this Arabs and others, we all know whom is behind it, we all know whom is doing it right now as we speak, they are the problem the Kurds are just fools, whom forgets that the people of your neighboring country’s will stay there, forever, so dont f…. that up. I dont consider Kurds native at all, period, like the Turks and now the Joojos, like the BallTick born and native, raving lunatic NothingButYahoho, whom is at the present, an full blown Semit, yeah, how “miraculous”, hallelujah. Dunka, dunka.
The Arabs have only one path out of this mess, that is to unite, no other way is viable for the coming future than Unifying.
Again, blame anyone whom you want, I blame You.
peace
What would happen with a NO vote? The CIA/Mossad plan B partition of Syria and Iraq would be left in tatters. I guess they have a question as to whether they can win.