So close to the long awaited, long stalled Kurdish referendum for independence, the creditability of the clannish, nepotistic Barzani regime is not at stake, as it has never been materialized in any realm but a heavily propagated fictional one. “The decision of the Kurds to take part in the new Iraqi government was to give a chance to Baghdad to shift its policy towards Erbil and address the problems between Erbil and Baghdad,” Barzani was quoted as telling Turkey’s Erdogan. And in rare accordance, the PUK affiliated Iraqi President, Faud Masum said Friday that the results of a referendum on Kurdish independence will not be implemented immediately, and that an independent Kurdistan will take a “very long time.” The current, united rhetoric stands in sharp contrast with the sentiments delivered this past summer, when President Barzani captivated Kurdistand and terrified Baghdad with routine suggestions of secession and true independence. Now with the lucrative oil fields of Kircuk in hand, International arms swelling Kurdish armories, and the International media’s praise for fighting IS, Iraqi Kurdistan is less likely to become independent than prior to these events. One must wonder whether Barzani’s secession threats were merely political leveraging, simultaneously espousing a popular Kurdish sentiment all Kurdish politicians must speak, much in the same way an Arabic state’s leader will rarely openly support Israel.
Despite the immense praise President Barzani receives – both domestically and internationally- an analysis of his post-Iraq war performance reveals a complacent, greedy leadership structure. According to KRG’s report, 2955 foreign companies work in Kurdistan region -1329 companies are Turkish, 157 Lebanese, 155 UAE, 125 are British, 117 from United States and 81 of them are German companies. Despite being flooded with foreign money, the Kurdish people have not financially benefited from the recent influx in foreign projects. With an estimated 30 to 60 percent unemployment rate, and 66 percent of the overall labor force works in service provision sectors -including banking, hospitality, and other intangible commodities- rather than Kurdish production sectors, there is little hope of avoiding complete dependence on Turkey. An economic design such as this does not produce an independent nation, but rather, as the recent rhetoric switch and ever expanding, wholly dependant relations with the IS abetting Turkey would indicate, an economic condition orchestrated to create a society of servants.
Corruption is at an endemic level, with nearly all positions of power being help by two families: the Barzani and Talabani clans. The two parties have created an oligarchy and divided their power based on tribal areas. President Barzani’s nephew became prime minister; Barzani’s sons, who are known, prodigious, famed gamblers, run the intelligence services and Special Forces; many other residents hold important executive or ministerial positions. Lacking any true accountability, lacking any form of requested public transparency, the Barzani family lives a iife like any other sponging noble family: virtually all family members have large investments in foreign companies; Masrour Barzan perchance a 10 million dollar mansion in Virginia, and his brother once gambled away 3.5 million dollars in a single evening, despite not holding official posts at times, former KRG prime minister Nechirvan Barzani has access to a private jet. With education reforms still needed, a crumbling sewage and electrical infrastructure in even areas of the capitol city of Erbil, and admittedly short on weaponry and unprepared for the IS threat, the parasitic minority has made fortunes, through foreign investments, oil sales, and bribery at every level of society; they unfortunately have not invested that money into Kurdistan.
An Iraqi Kurdistan removed from Rojava and Turkish Kurdistan can only be a puppet of Turkey; an Iraqi Kurdistan still in union with Iraq will virtually be the same, with perhaps less international support, a lesser dependence of Turkey, and a more subservient role to Iran and the Shiite controlled Iraqi government – both situation would involve the Barzani Family funneling Kurdish production though outside means, service positions for all but a select few, and little gains from the massive wealth Kurdish leaders bring in from oil production. Only unity and the purging of the oppressive, nepotistic, corrupt leaders who have held Kurdistan back from independence will move the Kurdish people in the right direction. Barzani’s ties with Turkey – a country nearly every new agency agrees at least hospitalizes Islamic State fighters, and one which has attempted to stop Turkish Kurds from rescuing their Syrian counterparts from Islamic State slaughter – only cements him as an enemy to the Kurdish people.
P&G Global Research Initiative 