Kurdistan Regional Government

The silence from Iraqi Kurdistan this week over the American president’s decision to relocate the US embassy to the divided city of Jerusalem was deafening.
The diplomatic hush was only amplified as, one by one, all of the neighbors of northern Iraq’s Kurdistan regional government vociferously condemned the move.
It’s a silence that could come back to haunt Iraqi Kurdish decision makers in the longer term.
Regional opposition to President Donald Trump’s decision was not entirely on religious grounds.

Immediately on the heels of the Iraqi Kurdistan “yes” vote, the Iraqi parliament approved sending troops to the disputed Kirkuk region to prevent the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) from taking full control of the oil-rich area. Preliminary official results out Wednesday indicate a 92% vote in favor of Kurdish independence.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister says the possibility of attacking the Kurds is “on the table.”

Official fears violence after 25 September independence vote, as disputes grow in areas controlled by Kurd forces outside original KRG borders.

(MEE) — Fears of fresh conflict in northern Iraq are bubbling to the surface weeks before Iraqi Kurds hold a contentious vote on independence, with warnings of war over disputed, ethnically mixed border regions and reports of Shia forces pushing Kurd officials from a town to prevent voting.

The Iraqi Supreme Court has ordered that the referendum on independence planned for September 25 be halted.
The problem is that the Iraqi Supreme Court’s decision will not be recognized or honored by the elites in the Kurdistan Regional Government, the Kurdish super-province. The Kurds say that no Iraqi government troops from Baghdad can ever set foot on Kurdistan soil.

A Kurdistan separatist fighter waits at his position near Degala, Iraq. Oct. 16, 1996 during fighting between rival Kurdish factions. (AP/Burhan Ozbilici)

The Iraqi parliament on Saturday, April 1, 2017, voted against raising the flag of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on public buildings and institutions in the city of Kirkuk. In a session attended by 186 members of the 328-seat parliament, the MPs voted in favor of flying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk’s public buildings. Kurdish lawmakers have walked out[Read More...]