Thursday, April 26. 2018
The leaders of the political parties in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq decided to hold a referendum on September 25th, 2017 for the purpose of deciding the fate of the Kurdistan Region and the disputed areas including the oil reach city of Kirkuk.
After the announcement came, the enemies of yesterday, become friends of today. The lobbying forces of Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria—which is representative by the Iranian government—actively colluded to halt the referendum by all means. And this strategy was gauged to minimize the rule of the people of the Kurdistan Region so as to ensure that they would play no role as power brokers in the future of the region.
They apparently took the bid for a referendum as their excuse to blindside the people of Kurdistan, because after the war against ISIS the popular army (Iranian’s proxy arm) in Iraq were determined to retake the city of Kirkuk and other disputed areas. We all know today that the leaders of the popular army are running the show in Iraq, while undermining the Iraq Government
After a meeting in Ankara between the Presidents of Turkey and Iran including their top generals, they strategized to take back all the disputed areas under the control of the Kurdistan Regional Government—areas which the Kurds had defended from ISIS attacks in 2016 and thereafter.
But Turkey took advantage of this agreement to make the deal based on the following conditions—and, of course, to be silent about it:
1. The Turkmens would get a larger and more important role in the future of Kirkuk.
2. Iran would not react to any attack on the city of Afrin or other areas under control of the people of the Kurds in Syria.
The implications of this agreement are that both Afrin and Kirkuk would be taken from the control of the Kurds and given back to central governments of Iraq and Syria later. The end result of this agreement is that both Kirkuk and Afrin are stolen from the Kurds and traded off to Iraq and Syria.
This plan was blessed by both the United States and Russia. The U.S. wants to keep Iraq ‘united’ and Russia wants more influence in the region. They regard the people of Kurdistan on a friendly basis only when they need to use them for their purposes. They have no intention to allow the people of Kurdistan to have a strong say in the future of their region. They used them as a proxy for their agendas only.
When the world needed the people of Kurdistan to fight ISIS on behalf of the international community, we saw a caravan of dignitaries from Presidents, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers, visiting both the Kurdistan Region in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region (Rojawa) in Syrian. All their top generals were praising the Kurds for their fighting skills and bravery during this time.
But when the people of Kurdistan tried to express their God-given rights to self-determination, all of these showy visits and compliments dissipated overnight and they left the people of Kurdistan to face their fate alone. This brings back many memories of similar behavior in recent history.
Turkish forces and Ankara-backed Syrian fighters destroyed the Kurdish Kawa statue in Syria's Afrin city
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters pull down the Kurdish statue of “Kawa” in the center of Afrin, Syrian Kurdistan, (Rojava) on March 18, 2018. Photo: Reuters
Therefore, this is not the first act of betrayal committed against the people of Kurdistan and it certainly will not be the last one. Their murky conspiracy does not end after Turkish military took the ‘city of heroes,’ Afrin. They plan to take over all the Rojawa, because the Turkish Government regards all the Kurds as a terrorist influence, albeit under different banners. And the Iraqi Government keeps pressuring the Kurdistan Regional Government to give up its authority to the Central Government, even as this violates the people of Kurdistan rights as guaranteed by the Iraqi Constitution.
Today Turkey, Iran, and Iraq successfully implemented their plot against the people of Kurdistan and they have pretty much succeeded in their aim to limit the aspirations of the people of Kurdistan. But the people of the Kurdistan Region will continue to fight for their legitimate rights. We may have lost a battle, but the war is far from over.
The U.S. made a strategic error when it abandoned the Kurds. The Kurds are the only trusted ally in the region after Israel. The days ahead will bear out the unwelcomed truth that U.S. interests in the area are going suffer and they will be forced out of Iraq as they were in 2011. The Russians will increase their influence in the region through their liaisons with Iran and Turkey. Turkey will become more anti-American, anti-West, anti-NATO and against all the principles of democracy. The true face of the Islamic brotherhood’s agenda is increasingly revealed on a daily basis as Turkey removes itself from its once-secular ideal.
Iran’s position against the Kurdish people has always been clear. Working through proxies in Iraq, Iran continues to thwart the aspirations of the people of Kurdistan to exercise their constitutional right to hold a referendum on their future. Iran’s position is nothing new because it had the same goals and aims in 1975 when it caused the Kurdish revolution collapse then. Working through its clients and proxies, Iran continues along this pathway to crush the dreams of the Kurdish people.
It appears that the people of Kurdistan have only one path if they are to regain their self-respect as a people and to exercise self-determination as mandated by the U.N. Charter. They must unite forces. They are currently in disarray in their house and their enemies are taking full advantage of it while trying to divide them even farther from each other. The people of Kurdistan are facing new elections in Iraq. If they lose more seats their voice to determine the future of
Iraq will be weaker. The days of political consensus in Iraq are over because the new rule will be determined by majority (Shiites and Sunnis) as we saw what happen after October 16th, 2018 when the Government retake control of the disputed area. The people of Kurdistan must unite their minds and forces if they want to have a say in the new Iraq. They must formulate a strategic plan based on the national interest of the people of Kurdistan in order to protect their future from their enemies at home and abroad. Allowing foreigners to alienate and divide the Kurds from each other will be the Kurds’ undoing.
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