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Kurdistan Constitution paves way for
independence 22.8.2006
By Salam Abdulqadir
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Erbil ,
Kurdistan, -- Two essential national issues for the
Kurds have been expressed - Self-determination and
the geographical border. The draft is in its
completing stage and is expected to be ratified soon
by the National Assembly. Globe’s Salam Abdulqadir
has this report:
The Iraqi constitution recognises the region of
Kurdistan as a federal region without identifying
its border, making it an article to wide
interpretations.
The Kurds believe that their current federal region
should not be limited to the three provinces of
Erbil, Sulaimaniyah and Duhok as they constitute the
majority in neighbouring areas to these provinces.
Demarcating the Kurdish region has been one of the
major disputes between the Kurdish revolutionaries
and the succeeding central governments of Iraq.
The Kurdish leadership have made more claims over
land. For them the Region of Kurdistan should be
larger than its present boundary, whilst the
succeeding central governments in Baghdad have had
the policy to minimise as much of the Kurdish
territory as possible, Kurdish officials said in the
past.
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Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein practiced similar
policies that favoured the Arabs by relocating
ethnic groups in the Kurdish region nearer to Arab
territory.
Thousands of Kurdish families in the provinces of
Kirkuk, Diyala, and Mosul were forced out of their
homes, displaced by Arabic families from other parts
of Iraq. The term used by Kurds for this movement is
‘Arabization’.
endorse its own constitution, which will clearly
address the issue of geographical boundaries in the
Kurdistan Region.
“There is an article in the draft which says that
Kirkuk and other Kurdish towns and villages of the
Diyala and Mosul provinces are parts of the
Kurdistan Region and should be administered by KRG
(Kurdistan Regional Government),” said Shirwan
Haideri, head of the committee set up by KRG to
write the constitution of Kurdistan.
The second most national issue is the right to
self-determination. This is also addressed in the
draft constitution, Haidari said.
“The draft makes it clear that Kurdish people have
the right of self-determination. We will go along
with federalism for our region as long as the
government in Baghdad is in agreement too. Once the
central government is deviated from federalism,
people here will have the right to determine the
future of their region,” he said.
This mistrust stems from the long history of the
Kurds with successive governments in Baghdad.
Although the Kurds are now in a seemingly stronger
position than the central government - they hold
some key positions in the Baghdad administration.
On the other hand, there is a common objective among
almost all the population of Kurdistan – the
independence.
In a referendum held a Non-Governmental Referendum
Movement – a movement which has carried out several
referendums in Kurdistan since 2003 about whether
people want to have an independent government - 80%
of the voters in January 2005 favoured a sovereign
Kurdistan.
Kurdishglobe
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