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Booming Kurdistan rethinks independence
1.12.2007
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Turks' recent threat to invade tells many they need
Iraqi Kurdistan
December 1, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- In
the barren brown hills outside the Kurdistan's
capital of Erbil, across the highway from what used
to be the American outpost in northern Iraq, a
little piece of the U.S. is being built.
Skeletons of villas dot the hillside, neat two-story
structures with garages that look out of place among
the spare cypress trees. A sign on the side of the
highway is emblazoned with the same sun that is on
the Kurdish flag, behind the words: American
Village.
"It's a little Columbia, Md., here in Iraq," said
Jim Covert, the Kurdistan country director for
Virginia-based Sigma International Construction,
developer of the $80 million project. "They love
anything American here, so we're building this as a
typical American subdivision."
The project, which will include 400 villas and a
mall, was originally intended for Baghdad. When that
city descended into chaos, the company decided to
transplant the concept 200 miles north, far from the
car bombs and sectarian violence that plagued the
rest of Iraq.
American Village is one of a gaggle of complexes
popping up around town with such names as English
Village and Italian Village to house the thousands
of international businesspeople and middle-class
Iraqis pouring into the area.
The regional government passed its own investment
and oil laws last year and recently announced more
than 20 oil and gas agreements with foreign
companies. These are all signs of the Kurdistan
region's speedy path to what some might call de
facto independence, as it embraces foreign
investment and tries to establish its own
relationships with neighboring countries.
But despite their long-held aspirations toward
independence, many Kurds may now be at a crossroads
in their thinking. The recent threat of an incursion
by Turkey in pursuit of Turkey's Kurdish PKK
guerrillas has caused many here to recognize how
much they need Iraq. While some of the region's
leaders pushed for a more active role for the
regional government in negotiating a solution,www.ekurd.net
they also were forced to
confront the reality that they could not go it
alone.
"Many of us have come to recognize that nationalism
is both limiting and limited," said Barham Saleh, a
Kurd and deputy Iraqi prime minister. "While I as a
Kurd always dream of a Kurdish state, and consider
it a fundamental right of the Kurdish people, I have
come to see that being part of the larger market of
Iraq, with the protections afforded us by a
democratic Iraq, offers the Kurdish people tangible
advantages."
Since the Kurdish enclave became semi-autonomous
after the 1991 gulf war, under the protection of a
UN-established no-fly zone, it has been surrounded
by neighbors with sizable Kurdish ethnic populations
and therefore wary of the Kurdish experiment in
self-rule. At various times, Syria, Turkey and Iran
have all launched attacks inside the territory.
In the most recent crisis, many watchers of the
Kurdistan region believe that if it had not been
part of a sovereign Iraq, the Turkish military would
not have hesitated to launch a major attack across
the border. While concerns about that possibility
have diminished, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said Friday that his Cabinet had authorized
the army to mount "a cross-border operation,"
without specifying its size or timing.
The Washington factor
The Kurdistan region's relationship with the U.S.,
commonly seen as its protector, also depends largely
on its role in the greater Iraq. Washington
considers Kurdish participation in the Baghdad
government as a key to protecting American interests
in Iraq.
"The Kurds' role in Baghdad is fundamental to
checking the rise of [Shiite] fundamentalism," said
one senior administration official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of
the issue. "If the Kurds weren't part of the central
government in Baghdad, it would simply be a [Shiite]
majority dominating a Sunni minority,www.ekurd.net
and the chances of a
secure, stable and prosperous Iraq would be severely
diminished."
But some Kurds feel conflicted, believing the region
does more for the central government than it gets in
return. Under the constitution's revenue-sharing
formula, the northern Kurdish enclave receives 17
percent of all oil revenue produced in Iraq.
But many Kurds think their economy deserves a bigger
share.
Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Kurdish government's head
of foreign relations, argues that the Kurdistan
region should not be held back by the central
government's ineptitude.
"It should not just be us doing things. Iraq has a
big budget, but it can't implement it," he said. But
he articulates the dilemma faced by the region.
"Today we live in Iraq. We want to help our people,
and we want to help build Iraq. But at the same
time, we want to move ahead, and provide a better
quality of life. The question is, can we do it
alone?"
For many in Iraqi Kurdistan, the answer was always
"of course." In an informal referendum conducted
alongside Iraq's 2005 election, 95 percent of voters
said they would prefer to live in an independent
Kurdistan.
Back at the American Village office, Awat
al-Barzanji pores over the plans for his
9,000-square-foot villa, known as the "Palace"
model.
Al-Barzanji, who was the spokesman for the United
Nations in Erbil from 1997 to 1999, returned in 2004
to work for his family's construction company.
"This place could turn into a miniature [United Arab
Emirates] in five years' time," he said. "But
there's always that if—if their cards are played
right, if policies have that as an aim, if they draw
a line between Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq, and
keep all the problems down there."
Thousands of refugees from other parts of Iraq have
arrived over the past few years, but tough
registration laws limit the number who stay. A
security trench around Erbil is 3 yards wide and 3
yards deep, and there are only seven points of entry
around the city. The peshmerga, or Kurdish
militiamen, who staff the checkpoints quiz those
entering the city and are especially tough on Arab
newcomers.
But despite popular distrust, the Kurdistan
government is trying to reach out both to
neighboring countries and to other Iraqis.
The government also has reached out diplomatically
to Iran, which briefly closed its border with the
region in October after the U.S. military arrested
an Iranian it accused of being affiliated with the
Revolutionary Guard's Quds Force.
Tehran opened a new consulate in November, in a
sandstone mansion in a nondescript residential
neighborhood of Erbil. Although several countries
have what are called embassy offices or commercial
sections in the Kurdish north, Iran and Russia are
the only ones with full consulates.
'Acting like a state'
"They are acting like a state as much as they can,"
said Luigi Orsini, whose card reads Consular
Correspondent of the Embassy of Italy in Baghdad,
but who is referred to as the Italian ambassador.
"They have their own channels to receive diplomats."
Meantime, the region continues to speed along.
The new, private American University of Iraq has
just started classes in a cluster of prefab
structures off the highway near the city of
Sulaymaniyah. Like many other projects, the
university—conceived by Deputy Prime Minister
Saleh—was supposed to have its first campus in
Baghdad. The students, many of whom speak English
better than Arabic, interrupt their teacher freely
in a boisterous, American classroom environment.www.ekurd.net
Kurdistan Fatah, an
earnest 18-year-old, dreams of becoming a
human-rights lawyer. She says she wants to go
overseas but eventually come back to the region.
"There are not enough opportunities now to do what
you want here," she said, "but if we work hard,
maybe we can make our own way."
chicagotribune com
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