Iraqi government trying to 'reduce' KRG: Professor Gunter

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government wants to “reduce” the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) through the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court (FSC) ruling against the autonomous region’s oil and gas law, Professor Michael M. Gunter of the Department of Sociology and Political Science at the Tennessee Technological University told Kurdistan 24.

“I think it’s a dangerous situation. It looks like the Iraqi government wants to reduce the KRG to being nothing except some type of ‘Saddamite’ governorate,” Gunter said, referring to the brutal rule of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“It is a constant struggle for the KRG to maintain semi-autonomy in the Iraqi state, and right now we’re seeing Iraq again trying to reduce the KRG, and this is no good,” the professor added.

Professor Gunter was referring to the FSC’s ruling in mid-February against the Kurdistan Region oil and gas law. Under the ruling, the FSC described that law as “unconstitutional”.

The professor made the remark to a K24 correspondent outside the White House in Washington DC during a protest in support of Ukraine, which is fighting a full-scale Russian military invasion.

“However, the KRG does have friends, and the United States is a friend, and frankly, sometimes even Turkey is useful for the KRG,” he concluded. “Although I don’t trust Turkey either.”