Kurds Should Get Prepared For Secession From Iraq

Many Arab Iraqi politicians are nowadays publicly antagonizing Kurdish demands to include Kirkuk in Kurdistan federal region boundaries and the authorities of Kurdistan regional government and consider such demands as separative intentions as if Iraqi Kurdistan with its current boundaries is a different state and not part of Iraq.

The Iraqi Arabs (Shiites and Sunnis alike) tend to forget or deliberately disregard the facts, that the Iraqi Arabs are all guilty in the crimes of genocide against Iraqi Kurds during the previous Arab governments of Iraq, the genocide of 8000 Barzani men in 1983, the genocide of 182 000 Kurds during Anfall operations of Iraqi army 1987-1988, the genocide of 5 000 innocent civilians with chemical agents in Halabja 1988. The Kurds expect an apology from all Arabs in Iraq and not instead putting hurdles before the just Kurdish demands in the new constitution which are based on undeniable historical and geographic facts and the long suffering of Kurds in Iraq.

The Kurds in Iraq are getting really worried and disappointed about the current state of affairs and the big question is really forcing itself on the Kurds: Is it really worth to participate in such a doomed political process in a country which has never shown any respect for human rights or an Arab nation which in all its 22 states is nowhere near a democracy.

The Kurdish leadership is in a dilemma, on one side they told their people that by participation in building the new Iraq, they will ensure Kurdish rights and on the other side any sensible or intelligent person is seeing that this process is leading nowhere and the confrontation with the new Iraqi regime over Kirkuk and other issue is almost inevitable and that the same tactics adopted by Saddam Hussein during 1970-1975 truce with Iraqi government then, is repeating itself now in an undisguised analogy and that the next Arab military campaigns and genocides are already in planning by the new chauvinistic Islamic rulers of Iraq, this time the Shiites.

It seems that it`s the destiny of Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan to fall so easily to the cunning and false promises of the occupying powers of Kurdistan only to be crushed with brutal force later.

The people of Kurdistan have shown clearly in the referendum which accompanied January 2005 elections that they want an independent Kurdistan (98% voted for an independent Kurdistan and only 2% to remain within Iraq). This is a clear mandate to the Kurdish leadership that they they should pursue secession and not integration in an Arab dominated chauvinistic and repressive state.

The Americans are looking for an exit strategy from Iraq at any price nowadays even if that meant that the Kurdish rights are ignored or that an Islamic state similar to the model of Iran is built in Iraq.

The Kurdish leadership must consider the option of secession seriously and prepare the Kurdish public for the war of independence which is worth fighting anyway , instead of falling again for the treacherous tricks of Iraqi Arabs again.

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Kurds Keep Losing Ground in Negotiations in Arab Iraq

While the Shiites and Sunnis of Arab Iraq keep their stance of no compromise, the Kurdish leadership as expected is wavering and giving in to American bullying to accept Islam and now to drop demands of self-determination in their negotiations in Baghdad. Earlier reports however suggested that Kurds did not even raise the issue of self-determination. On every key issue, Kurds have made little gain in their pointless negotiations in Arab Iraq...More....
http://kurdistanobserver.servehttp.com/20-8-05-kurds-may-drop-their-demand.htm


Kurds Already Have Right to Secede

By: D. Jason Berggren

Florida International University

Miami, Florida, USA

djberggren [at] hotmail.com

One of the contentious issues with the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution is whether the post-Saddam Iraq should be a federal republic or not. The Kurds favor federalism as a bulwark against the prospect of another tyrannical centralized regime. For them, federalism means security and preservation of nationhood. Sunni and Shiite Iraqis fear that federalism may embolden Kurdish desires for outright independence thereby weakening their communities. As the Associated Press recently reported, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr led rallies of Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis opposing federalism and the potential for disunion. Supporters of al Sadr chanted, “No to separation; yes to unity.” Sadr assistant Hazim al Aaraji said, “we are one united people whether we are Sunnis or Shiites, Kurds or Arabs.” They fear federalism “would rip away the unity of the nation.” The fear is a separate Kurdish state. Iran and Turkey who also have large Kurdish minorities within their borders also fear and oppose Kurdish independence. Though the ideal may indeed be Kurdish independence, they are presently prepared to join a federal Iraq.

All the Kurds are asking for is to codify a formal right to secede. They want to join their fellow Iraqis in creating a new government, just not a centralized, unitary one. They want a federal republic with the right to withdraw. This is understandable. As a clear minority that suffered and were gassed under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime, the Kurdish demand for the right to secession is understandable, logical, and moral.

It is recommended here that the Kurds drop their demand for a formal recognition of their right to secede. Why? Because they already have that right!

Kurdish leaders need to remind the Bush administration of our secessionist origins. Though we can recite by heart parts of the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal,” “certain inalienable rights,” “endowed by our Creator,” “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” how often to we or those in Washington read the whole document? The Declaration of Independence is not fundamentally about human equality. It is a document that presents a people’s desire, its case, and right to go its own way. It is a document that justifies the occasional need and moral right of secession. It is a declaration of independence! Thirteen British colonies wanted a divorce.

The Declaration does not begin with noble statements of human equality and individual rights. No, the document begins with the first right—the right to collective, not individual, self-determination: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.” In other words, the Kurds already possess a natural and divine right to secede. No constitution, interpretation of a constitution, prior losses on the battlefield, or international opinion can diminish or eliminate that inalienable right. It is not necessary to codify it; under God, they are entitled to it and can invoke it if a future “long train of abuses and usurpations” happens to them under a new Iraqi government.

What the Kurds should insist in the wording of the new constitution something like “each region and people of Iraq acting in its sovereign character voluntarily consents to form this federal government.” By including the words “sovereign character” and “voluntarily consents” the Kurds would be expressing that by their free will they give their approval to form a federal union. Furthermore, without needing to formally express it, the right of secession is an attribute of sovereignty. As a corporate entity freely joins, it may also freely leave. That is the essence of sovereignty—the right to self-determination. The Kurds have it, all peoples have it. Let the Iraqi constitution proceed.

http://kurdistanobserver.servehttp.com/22-8-05-opinion-berggren-kurds-alreadyhave-right-secede.htm