Arabs and Kurds: Which future?
November 29th, 2009Tensions between the Arab and Kurdish communities in the North and West of Iraq are the main destabilizing factor in the country, warns a senior American military official in Bagdad, General Steve Lanza. After the terrorist threat presented by Al Qaida in 2006-2007 and the inter-Shiite conflict in 2008, current tensions could represent the beginning of a “third phase” of crisis.
Tensions arose because of the American decision in 2003 which authorized their Kurdish allies to occupy 80 000 km2 of territory bordering the three Northern provinces that they were governing. “80 000 km2, is three times the surface of their three provinces “, highlighted an Iraqi Official in an Arabic newspaper. It is thus hardly surprising that their Arabic neighbors are protesting today. At that time, the Kurds were allied with the Shiites- the main allies of the Americans. It is they who, with the American proconsul Paul Bremer, drafted the federal constitution which has caused Iraq so many difficulties.
How to return the Kurdish Peshmerga to their three Northern provinces? Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has endorsed various ventures in the last months in order to find an answer to the question. He tests his Kurdish neighbors by sending up an Iraqi army brigade here or there, but faces Peshmergas who refuse to give a single square meter of land. The Americans have proposed cooperation between US forces and Iraqi and Kurdish forces, and joint patrols, but it was in vain.
The situation on the ground is getting worse. There are areas of tensions between Arabs and Kurds, which undoubtedly strengthens the position of Al Qaeda which has been more or less expelled from other areas in Iraq. A new theater of potential ethnic violence which Al Qaeda will inevitably try to capitalize on.
Taking advantage of American patronage, the Kurds went a long way to establish their autonomy in 2003. Perhaps too far? They probably knew that, faced with a choice between Bagdad and Erbil, the Americans will probably ultimately choose Iraq. That may be why they started to redefine their relations with their neighbors, particularly Turkey, especially on the PKK subject.
In Bagdad, Nouri al-Maliki has bad relations with the president of the autonomous region of Kurdistan, Massoud Barzani. He’ll probably need the Kurds however if he wants to hold on to power and the Prime Minister’s post after the general election in January 2010. Thus, in the eyes of the Kurds, Maliki’s room to maneuver is considerably reduced, unless of course he manages to find other coalition partners (such as Iyad Alawi or Salih al-Mutlaq), win a majority and thus continue to rule.
“We’re working very hard to calm the tensions in the North “, says General Lanza. A committee has been formed with senior American military officials, representatives of the KRG and officials from the central government in Bagdad to discuss initiatives and potential solutions. But as times passes, the rift between Arabs and Kurds in the North is growing.
from the NCCI OCTOBER 2009 review published in iraq
The NGO Coordination Committee in Iraq – NCCI – is an independent initiative launched by a group of NGOs who were present in Baghdad in April 2003. At the time of its inception, the 14 members of NCCI intended to establish the basis of a neutral aid coordination highlighting the priorities for intervention and optimizing the responses to the needs of the Iraqi population. More than 5 years later, NCCI has pursued its initial objectives and has developed into a wide forum where NGOs can exchange information regarding humanitarian activities and policy decisions in Iraq. NCCI’s role in Emergency coordination requires NCCI to ensure that basic needs relating to crisis situations are met.
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All those regions are populated by Kurds.
This article is immensely skewed in favour of the Arabs. As another poster indicated, this area is actually Kurdish populated. I will go further and clarify that this area is historically Kurdish and was only under Baghdad’s hands due to gerrymandering of the governorates and ethnic cleansing progroms by Saddam over 30 years against the Kurdish population. If the Kurds were to relinquish their own land you can be assured there would be a bloodbath as the Arab terrorists/Al Qaeda move in their death squads. Is this really what the writers of this ill-considered and skewed article really want?
Some people have mastered the art of “divide and conquer” so much so that they can create a problem and have those who want to end it come to them as mediators.
All of creation belongs to Allah, and we are given authority as His agents to supervise its uses.
What will we say on Judgment Day about what we did or did not do to help those who needed help in its various manifestations?
first this is not Kurdish areas ,not was nor will
second this is a fact ,Kurds in Iraq are Iraqi people ,they suffer the same as all of us from saddam regime ,but this doesn’t give them the rights to isolate them selfs from the country
3rd-yes ,iraq is consist of Arabs ,turkmen ,kurds ,and the main religions are Islam ,Christianity,Jewish ,izidy,sabia mendaeen , so we all share the country ,the Kurds are taking more than the normal share ,so yes as a defenders of others we had to stop this injustice
4- if saddam was a criminal with Kurds ,and they want to have there own land ,are the victims of saddam of the Kurds getting the justification they deserve? why iraqi kurds are no1 asylum seekers till today ? why they still suffer from bad economy in kurdistan ? why all the money there control by 1 family and 1 tribe? are they building a historical country for kurds or a family regime?
i am an Arab but first i am an iraqi ,i will stand for kurds of iraq rights the same as rights of the others ,but iraqi main interest to have united ,democratic state ,this will benefit iraqi kurds first and all