KRG: Iraq’s pre-2014 sectarian government helped create ISIS

The sectarianism of the Baghdad government in the period leading up to the summer of 2014 and ISIS’ sudden emergence helped to create the terrorist organization, Falah Mustafa, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Kurdistan Region, explained last week in a Yazda webinar marking the sixth anniversary of the Yezidi genocide.

The Yezidi organization, Yazda, along with the Beirut-based, The Zovighian Partnership, which promotes socio-economic advancement in the Middle East, marked the sixth anniversary of ISIS’ genocidal assault on the Yezidis, with an important two-day webinar last week. This is the second of two reports on the event. The first is here. 

WASHINGTON DC (Kurdistan 24) – The sectarianism of the Baghdad government in the period leading up to the summer of 2014 and ISIS’ sudden emergence helped to create the terrorist organization, Falah Mustafa, Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the President of the Kurdistan Region, explained last week in a Yazda webinar marking the sixth anniversary of the Yezidi genocide.

Although Mustafa made his statement in the context of that event, they have acquired new relevance since Friday’s White House announcement that the next round of the “strategic dialogue” between the US and Iraq will be held later this month, with the August 20 visit to Washington of Iraq’s new prime minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi. 

Read More: Iraqi Prime Minister to visit Washington 

Mustafa’s remarks highlight the problems to which Iraq’s political system is prone and suggest some necessary measures to prevent the country’s relapse into violence and disorder. 

Hasty US withdrawal in 2011 

Mustafa tied the rise of ISIS to the US departure from Iraq in 2011 and the subsequent rise in sectarianism there.

“We all know that that prior to ISIS’ attacks, the political process in Iraq was going in the wrong direction,” Mustafa said. “After the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, the then prime minister,” Nuri al-Maliki, “started to take action, regardless of the consequences.”

“We saw peaceful demonstrations in Anbar province,” he explained, “in Fallujah and Ramadi, where people were asking for security, safety, better services, and inclusion in the political process—all legitimate demands.”

“But these legitimate demands,” he continued, “were responded to militarily.”

“The sectarian-led government in Baghdad marginalized and excluded the Sunni community and started to take action against the Kurdistan Region,” he stated, and “helped ISIS to emerge.”

“We must all learn the lesson, before we can start” to build “a new chapter in the life of the Yezidis and the entire population of Iraq,” Mustafa affirmed. 

Need for Partnership and Devolving Power

Although Baghdad has a millennial-old tradition of centralized, authoritarian government, even tyranny, the Iraqi constitution, drafted in 2005, after the US-led overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime, provided for a federal, decentralized state.

But old habits die hard, and societies are not transformed merely by the overthrow of a regime. Moreover, the need to fight the insurgency that emerged after the fall of the old regime contributed to the return of Iraq’s centralized state.

But “we in the Kurdistan Region” have a different view, Mustafa explained. We “believe in true and genuine partnership” and “sharing power” and “devolving power.”

For that reason, he said, “We also support” the establishment of “a province in Sinjar for the people of Sinjar to manage their own affairs.” 

“The same thing goes for the Christian community in the Nineveh Plain,” which is asking for autonomy, Mustafa continued. “We in the Kurdistan Region support this approach,” as we support “sharing power, sharing wealth, and devolving power to local communities.”

Americans will recognize that as very similar to the principles behind their own political system. Local control is recognized as the best way to ensure that government is responsive to people’s needs, rather than serve the interests of politicians and bureaucrats in a far-off capital city. 

Need for Tolerance and Peaceful Coexistence 

Mustafa also stressed the need for mutual respect and tolerance among Iraq’s religious and ethnic communities.

“The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has spared no effort to improve our educational system so that children learn about different faiths” and “not only Islam,” he said, while “it has supported the building of churches and Yezidi temples” and “promoted the principle of religious freedom and peaceful coexistence.”

“The Kurdistan Region is ready to work closely with Baghdad,” he continued, “to address these issues in order to secure stability and to win a lasting peace.” 

“The culture of religious freedom and harmonious co-existence must be prevalent in all aspects of life in Iraq,” Mustafa stressed, “in our politics, society, and economy” and “entrenched in every corner of our country.” 

Many People, including Yezidis and Christians, are still Displaced, Need Security 

Mustafa noted that the Kurdistan Region, with a population of five million, is supporting a total of 1.1 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the fight against ISIS from elsewhere in Iraq, as well as refugees from Syria, and they include significant numbers of Yezidis and Christians.

“Up to 70% of the cost of caring for them is borne by the KRG, while the rest is provided by friendly governments and NGOs,” he stated. “We are grateful for that assistance, but more is needed, especially at this time,” with the difficulties and dangers created by the coronavirus pandemic.

“These communities will not be able to go back unless they have security, basic services, and prospects of a livelihood in the sense of control over their own destiny,” Mustafa affirmed.

“As far as security is concerned,” he said, “it is important for all foreign militias and armed groups” to leave Sinjar, so “Erbil and Baghdad can work together to provide security for the local population.” 

Read More: US: Militias need to leave Yezidi areas 

The US diplomat, Joey Hood, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, made a similar point at the same event, as he noted, “The presence of armed groups outside the control of the central government” is “the main reason Yezidis cannot return home.” 

Victims of ISIS Need Justice 

“One of the highest challenges in rebuilding is rebuilding trust,” Mustafa explained. “Many Yezidis and Christians fear returning to their places of origin, because often it was their neighbors who turned them over to ISIS or joined ISIS themselves.”

He stressed the need for justice. Without it, “There cannot be reconciliation, and without reconciliation we are doomed to live in suspicion of each other,” he said.

“It is important that Erbil and Baghdad work together,” to bring the perpetrators to justice, and “at the same time, “work with the United Nations investigation team led by Special Advisor Karim Khan.”

Editing by John J. Catherine