When In the Course of Kurdish Events: The Ongoing Kurdish Struggle for Independence

August 18th

Since the initial surge of Islamic State extremists, numerous Kurdish border territories have came under significant pressure – forcing Pershmerga troops back to core KRG territory. Already being economically and militarily isolated, and now hosting over a million refugees – including Arabs, Yazidis, and Christians- the KRG had become strained to a near breaking point.That would all change when the United States made their diffident reentry.

Backtracking from the policy not to directly supply the KRG with military aid, the United States has since decided to give arms, military vehicle and equipment to the embattled group. President Obama’s trepidations over a military reentry into Mesopotamia were overcome for a myriad of reasons:trapped atop Mount Singar, under the scrutinizing lens of the International media, the Yazzidi people were being exterminated with the use of American weaponry; the capture and potential destruction of the Mosul Dam jeopardized thousands of lives and would cause severe economic harm to all of Iraq; Irbil’s’ many American businesses, universities, and consulates were now in risk of being overrun by the tenebrific IS forces. In addition to the support lent by the United States, a recent flood of European assistance has begun.

Aided by American air strikes, the revitalized, rearmed Peshmerga soldiers have been successful in regaining their lost territory and stopping the IS’s March toward Irbil. As of today’s date, August 18, much of the Mosul dam has been secured. Although Yazidi villages remain under assault all throughout Iraq, the potential total genocide upon Mount Sinjar has been at least partially averted. Despite the latest round of aggression, the KRG has sent notice to the IS – promising them that no harm will come to them if they leave the terrorist organization turned army. Further attempting to bridge the gap between the Kurds and Arabs will be vital to the long-term success of a Kurdish state, as no state ceaselessly bombarded by terrorist attacks could expect the level of foreign investments that the KRG will need to be financially successful.President Barzani, though under both military and political attacks, has refused to allow crisis to regress the cause of Kurdish autonomy.

The Divisive, now former Prime Minister al Maliki resigned, making room for Haider al- Abadi. As has been the case with all post 03 invasion Prime Ministers, P.M. Abadi was absent from Iraq for the lifetime of most Iraqis, before his 03 return. After attending Manchester University, Mr. Abadi went on become to become a successful London businessman, excelling in various engineering ventures.This uniquely un-Iraqi life will certainly fuel the same Puppet King accusations his predecessor had faced. Also like his predecessors, Haider al- Abadi has been consistently against Kurdish autonomy.

The ownership of the Kircuk oil field is, perhaps, the greatest conflict between Kurdistan and Baghdad.A KRG representative said in a statement on its website that the proposed agreements between Baghdad and British Petroleum, Shlumberger, and Baker Hughes would all be illegal and unconstitutional.Billions of dollars in potential oil dealings will be lost to the Shiite run central government, as well as those in the global community who hoisted them into power. President Barazani’s recent declaration that Kurdistan will continue to push for Independence indicates that the KRG does not see enough difference between al Malaki and al Abadi to merit a change of heart.

The Kurds are facing their share of internal threats, too. The PKK, a Kurdish workers party – still declared terrorists by the United States – have been assisting Peshmerga forces fight the IS away from Mount Sinjar and the Yazidi people. However, reports have surfaced that the PKK is also waging its own propaganda war against the KRG – currently forming inclusive refugee camps for the Yazidi refugees, where they are told that the KRG intentionally scarified them for public attention and global aid. Just as in any recent, analogous occurrence, civil war and wide spread panic cause governments to become more insular; the preservation of the capitol becomes the prime focus- as is the case regarding Irbil. The same method of coercion was originally designed under the al Maliki regime, intended to persuade future Sinjar referendum voters against joining the KRG.

The President of the strange, new Iraq apparently can only be selected from the PUK party, which is the largest political rival to President Barznani’s KDP party. Faud Masum, founding member of the PUK and first Prime Minister of the KRG, has currently filled that role. The easily contented PUK, though not officially opposed to future autonomy attempts, has consistently expressed concern about presently seeking autonomy. When the Central Government requests the currently PUK controlled Kircuk back from the KRG, the true beliefs of the Iranian influenced party will be revealed.

Support for the Kurds is growing; the US, Britain, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, and Finland have all agreed to sell arms to Kurdistan; UK Prime Minister David Cameron told President Barzani that they completely support the Kurdistan Region in their fight against terror; the Islamic State’s forward progress, for now, has been thwarted. However, as with the majority of history’s quests for independence, the current Kurdish attempt will be riddled with complications. Both internal and external obstacles still need to be dealt with, but the timing has never been more right. The sympathetic International community would not tolerate an Iraqi civil war, especially one where both sides received all their weaponry from the United States et al. Although the Iraqi Government and British Petroleum will be upset about losing the potential Kircuk deal in place with Baghdad, President Barzani does not seem willing to yield the critically vital land in a war of words. If the KDP and the PUK cooperate, Kurdish Independence wont be far away.

Catching up with Iraqi Kurdistan ( As of 8/11/2014)

The Iraqi national borders are factually a culturally blind, capitalistically minded creation of 20th century Imperial England. After World War 1, during the fragmentation of the former Ottoman Empire, the League of Nations granted England the land currently known as Iraq. With quixotic visions of the Garden of Eden sprawled out through their minds, the English pictured a time when their Indian colonists would grow enough food for the entire British Empire, cultivated on the fertile shores of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Originally slated to become an independent state, the Kurdish Region, including Its ancestral capitol of Kirkuk, later was denied and fused with the rest of modern Iraq; the discovery of large oil reserves surrounding Kirkuk had made the area especially important to the English. In 1918, Kurdish leaders unsuccessfully requested English support for a united, independent Kurdistan. Tensions between the Kurds and the British occupiers would continue to mount when the Meccan born Faisal bin Hussein bin Ali al-Hashim, a man nearly no Kurd had ever heard of, was installed the first King of Iraq.

The people of the region have faced their share of death, destruction, and betrayal since 1918: in the 1920s, Winston Churchill advised and authorized use of mustard gas to suppress Kurdish leader Mahmud Barzanji’s Kurdish revolt; in 1945, the short-lived, soviet backed Mahabad Republic was created, abandoned, and left to be destroyed by Iran; in 1974, seeking only to slightly weaken the Iraqi Government, the United States and Iran initiated a Kurdish revolt- only to abandon the plan midway and leave the Kurds to be massacred; during the 80s, Hussein led the infamous Al Anfal campaign against the Kurds, murdering and displacing tens of thousands. Propaganda, Exploitation, and cruel despotic power have been the only agents of Iraqi preservation.

In 1991, after the Gulf War, the American exit allowed the Saddam Régime to reinstitute its genocide of the Kurdish people. As a result the United States would eventually enforce a no-fly zone over the Iraqi Kurdish region. It is under this most recent protection that the largest ethnic group without a recognized nation-state began their most promising attempt at independence.

Now free from the destruction and violence of Hussein’s genocidal Al- Anfal campaign, the KRG’s 1970’s autonomous accord agreement was finally reaching its desired fruition: A Kurdish flag was flown all through the region; a national anthem was created; a new generation grew up within this autonomous zone, isolated from the Arab culture and language of the south; various political parties have formed; independent relationships with many international governments had even formed. Israel and China have both released statements supporting Kurdish autonomy. Through Foreign aid and black market deals with Turkey and Iran, Kurdistan began to grow its wealth. In addition to the oil being exported in the U.N.’s nobly titled oil for food program, the Ibrahim al-Khalil crossing on the Turkish border become a viable, profitable method for transporting oil out of the region. The relationship with Turkey would prove critically valuable in the future. The culturally tolerant, pro-western Kurdish region now stood in sharp contrast to the genocidal Government threateningly looming just below its borders.

When America would officially return in 2003, they would allow the Kurds to come even closer to their dreams of independence. Fighting on the side of the coalition forces, the Kurds established a great deal more power during the chaos of war times, even briefly seizing control of Kirkuk. Afraid that a Kircuk included KRG would spark a civil war, the United States convinced the Kurds into militarily exiting their ancestral home. Although leaving Kircuk was a bitter reminder of how quickly fortunes can change, The Kurdish people rejoiced to be finally free from Saddam Hussein. When entering in the North of South of Iraq, American soldiers had been greeted as liberators.

The celebration over the fall of Saddam Hussein was short lived, as the struggling new Iraq quickly began to break down. The third American approved Shiite prime minister since the 03 invasions Nouri al- Maliki promised to increase Sunni representation in the army and central government. However, Prime Minister al-Maliki’s detention of thousands of Sunnis without trial, destruction of the democratically chosen Iraqiyya party, and the bombing of Sunni civilian areas has only further alienated the majority of the afflicted Sunni population. Prime Minister al-Maliki’s grandfather actually served as minister of education under the first British installed puppet King of Iraq.

When the IS, an extremist Al Qaeda splinter group would aim to create an caliphate out of Iraq and Syria, they would find their enemies terminally divided. With Iraqi troops fleeing from IS forces and abandoning their positions in Kirkuk and its neighboring territory, the Kurds returned to their ancestral land and are currently protecting the region’s diverse population and coveted oil fields. However, the IS threat against the KRG has never been greater. Already in control of Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city and a southern neighbor of the KRG, the IS forces have used abandoned United Sates weaponry, vehicles, and military bases to launch their first successful attacks on Kurdish territory

The Obama administration, afraid to be credited with the splitting of Iraq, has appeared more fearful of Kurdish autonomy than Kurdish destruction. While the IS battled for supremacy within the region, Baghdad and the United states declared oil originating from the Kurdish region as stolen, despite the Supreme Court of Iraq stating the contrary. Any actor who perpetrates the alleged criminal act of purchasing the oil will likely face charges and be banned from future southern Iraqi Oil fields dealings. Rather than assisting the Kurdish people in thwarting the IS, the American administration had focused entirely on how to keep the KRG embattled and financially blockaded enough to no longer seek autonomy.

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Only with the global community rising up in the face of potential genocide and unprecedented instability, the pensive, conforming, tarrying, Obama administration finally confronted their fear of saying the word “Iraq” and did what should have been done months ago: provide incentives for Shiite politicians to oppose the divisive al- Maliki: provide the Kurdish people with financial and military aid: protect billions of dollars worth of foreign investments; ensure that American weaponry doesn’t fuel the creation of a genocidal, fascist Islamic state. For months the KRG has pleaded with the Obama administration for military aid, only to be told to first acquiesce to the demands of Baghdad. Financially starved and militarily drained, with all of Iraq on the brink of destruction, the Kurdish region, had finally received American assistance

On the subject of the Al Qaeda splinter group becoming a significant threat, President Obama stated,”If a junior varsity team puts on Lakers uniforms, does that make them Kobe Bryant?” That splinter group has become a full-fledged military force, in no small part due to the United States’  complete failure to recognize, at the  least, a significant regional threats. President Obama’s previous support for an administration that fails to honor the Iraqi constitution or the Iraqi Supreme Court, and his complete forsaking of the Kurdish and Sunni people has contributed to the division and disenfranchisement that so frequently breeds terror.While the ever-pleasing President Obama accomplished his main goal of satisfying his constitutes enough to win two terms, the abrupt, vote pandering exit and political misinterpretations that followed have brought Iraq back to crisis.  An administration that places more importance on electioneering than human rights and moral responsibilities certainly doesn’t embody change anyone can believe in.

If the IS is destroyed tomorrow, the United States will pressure the Kurds into giving  Kirkuk  to the central Iraqi government, regardless of whether or not al-Maliki is present. The  KRG has questioned the constitutionality of the Iraqi oil Ministry’s deals with foreign oil companies, as the disputed land’s ownership has yet to be determined by referendum.  The Iraqi constitution granted right wont stop the United States and Baghdad from requesting Kurdish withdrawal from their ancestral homelands -and a return to a unified Iraq. The Obama administration and Bagdad could never militarily force a Kurdish exit, especially due to many years of positive media portrayals of the the Kurds. If the IS happens to be contained after the KRG loses land to the extremists, America’s largest obstacle in obtaining Iraqi unity would be removed- without the political and global complications of taking the land directly back from the Kurds. Conflicting motives make poor allies.However,with the insatiable need China and Russia have for oil, the Kurds are not short on potential allies who don’t mind crossing America.