Kurdish Independence? Are Kurdish political parties ready?

Nechirvan Barzani, Barham Salih and Yusuf Mohammed Sadiq — From (left) Kurdistan PM Nechirvan Barzani, PUK leader Barham Salih and Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Yusuf Mohammed Sadiq, Sulaimani March 16, 2016. Photo credit: NRT

Omar Sindi | Exclusive to iKurd.net
Washington

The tree of liberation of a nation has to be replenished with the blood of patriots, and enemies. There is no question the Kurdish people have been ready, generation upon generation for this dream, the ‘Kurdish independence’ that is why they are continuously sacrificing everything at their disposal including the blood of their loved ones, especially the young ones. In the last two decades, the focus of independence pivoted toward Southern Kurdistan, today it is called the Kurdish autonomous region, or better known as the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The bigger question is, are the Kurdish political parties ready for Kurdish independence within the perimeter of KRG, politically, economically, and militarily?

Former Sectarian Iraqi Prime-minister and current Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki’s trip to Sulaimani, and not to Hawler (Erbil) reveals the wetness of the ominous emblem of political polarizations among Kurdish parties. Alas, the snub history does repeat itself and it is a self-destructive train wreck; the neighboring countries have been able to take advantage of Kurdish political parties’ internal divisions for generations, so this 21st century should be no surprise.

Dr. Deniz Cifci is a Middle East analyst who in his recent research essay titled “How many Kurds will say ‘Yes’ to Kurds independence and why some may boycott the vote”, it is striking but sad phenomenon that 86% people do not trust political parties. The article was published by Gulbahar Altash via Rudaw website. “%86 of the public do not trust any of the political parties.” What are these leaders thinking of their performances if they don’t have a high percentage of public support? This distrustness is similar to the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries’ Communist parties’ leaderships’ dogma.

Since Baghdad cut off the fund to the KRG, the KRG hierarchy has been unable to properly pay its public employees’ monthly salaries. In August 2014, when ISIS/ISIL or “Daesh” attacked Kurdistan, Peshmerga resistances to ISIS/ISIL were considered very weak and underperformed by many international observers.

“British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon said the Iraqi government was representing the whole country when it was invited to the anti-Islamic State (ISIS) Coalition conference near Washington.

Fallon said during an interview with NRT the Iraqi government is a “coalition government” and the Iraqi defense minister represents all of Iraq at the conference”

Mr. Fallon‘s paradox of realpolitik statements is regrettable at its best and it is despicable at its worst: it was the British Empire and the French government who were the colonial powers at the “Sykes &Picot Agreement” which divvied Kurdistan, fenced off Kurdish villages and towns from each other, trapped Kurdish people into of a quagmire between the artificially created Iraqi and Syrian states. At that time the Kurdish people vehemently resisted this anomaly merge of Kurdistan. Now in modern times, what is happening between the KDP and the PUK lobby with the British Conservative Party for years in London, especially relationships with parliamentarian members of conservative party, and whom Mr. Fallon is a member of. However, it appears Mr. Fallon’s realpolitik on this case is similar to Former US Ambassador Robert Ford‘s view on the status of Kurds in the Rojava-Syrian unitary state.

“Need to be mentioned that Kurdish Peshmerga troops in Iraqi Kurdistan are not unified force, and considered as militias of the ruling parties, the Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP led by Massoud Barzani and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK led by Jalal Talabani.” – Widely reported by various media outlets, including Ekurd.

The Kurdish people are living in a purgatory status; there is no adjective to describe the Kurdish people’s continual hex. But those who took advice from former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki supposedly for the greater good of Kurdistan could be compared to an owner of a flock of sheep asking a leader of a wolf pack which valley he should graze his animals in the spring and summer seasons! Those who are pretty much in love with the unitary of Iraq, should‘ve posed questions to Mr. Maliki during his premiership, and why he wanted to invade Hawler, and last but not least, ask about the billions upon billions of dollars that went missing or were squandered during his role as Iraqi Prime minister.

With Dysfunctional Kurdish parliament and incoherent Kurdish forces “Peshmerga”, are Kurdish political parties ready for the subjective factor- Kurdish Independence? I would leave that question to the political pundits! But, on July 9th, 2016; economic magazine had published an article titled “Dream on hold”.

Omar Sindi, a senior writer, analyst and columnist for iKurd.net, Washington, United States.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Read more about Independent Kurdistan state