Iraqi senior officials support independent Kurdistan
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – Two Iraqi senior officials supported independence for Kurdistan but advised caution and added there is still hope to improve Baghdad-Erbil relations.
Adil Abdul-Mahdi, Iraqi Minister of Oil, attended Kurdistan Independence Conference held in Sulaimani this week and said that “People of Kurdistan have faced oppression and have been forced to confront others. I personally support aspirations of the Kurdish nation but its steps have to be pre-planned and they should know how they are taking the steps.”
Abdulmahidi, a leader in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, asked Kurdistan Region to hold the referendum and the right of self-determination “with a sense of responsibility.”
"There is still an opportunity to solve the disputes between Erbil and Baghdad because Kurdish rights are guaranteed in the Iraqi constitution, therefore we all should go back to the constitution,” he added.
The Kurdistan Regional Government Deputy Prime Minister, Qubad Talabani, gave a speech during the conference stating that, “Reaching independence is a process that should start with negotiations among ourselves then we will start negotiating with friends and enemies.”
On Monday, the Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani in a statement on the 100th anniversary of Sykes-Picot agreement said that “Baghdad and the Kurdistan Region will have a serious dialogue to reach a new solution [for the disputes]… and if a genuine partnership does not succeed, let us become good neighbors.”
Barzani stated that Iraqi governments after the fall of the Baath regime in 2003 “have disregarded the constitution, reneged on their commitments, ignored partnership, and decided to cut the Kurdistan Region’s budget share.”
“The share of the Kurdish people in this partnership has been the murder and deportation of 12,000 young Faili kurds, the murder of 8,000 Barzanis, the murder and disappearance of 182,000 Kurds in Garmiyan area and elsewhere, the chemical bombardment of Halabja, the destruction of 4,500 Kurdish villages, the Arabization of Kurdish areas, and countless other examples of injustice,” Barzani added in a statement published on the Kurdistan Region Presidency website.
Reporting by Baxtiyar Goran
Editing by Ava Homa