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Parties Try To Soothe Gorran’s
Revolutionary Rage
8.2.2011
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February 8, 2011
ERBIL/SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Despite Gorran’s
revolutionary demands for the dissolution of the
Kurdish government and parliament, one of Iraqi
Kurdistan’s ruling parties has said there is still
room for talks between the ruling parties and the
recalcitrant opposition party.
“Our relationship with Gorran depends on the actions
they might take after their [recent] statement,”
said Adnan Mufti, member of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) Political Bureau and former speaker
of the Kurdistan parliament, in an interview with
Rudaw last week.
The PUK, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, is
one of the two ruling parties of the semiautonomous
region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq.
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Nawshirwan Mustafa, leader of the Iraqi Kurdish
opposition party Gorran, which has demanded the
Kurdistan government to stand down. Photo:
vanderbilt.edu |
But Gorran, formed two
years ago by former PUK deputy leader Nawshirwan
Mustafa, has said it believes in its recent demands
and is working for their implementation.
“We don’t regret any of the points in our statement;
our views are still the same,” said Gorran spokesman
Mohammed Tofiq Rahim.
Many, however, believe the only solution for the
currently intensifying dispute is to hold a meeting
for Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, Kurdistan
President Massoud Barzani and Gorran’s leader,
Mustafa,
“We are open to having talks with Gorran to solve
these problems, if they don’t insist on their
agenda, they are willing to talk and they are
prepared to preserve this government, which they
themselves have had a part in building,” said Mufti.
He said he considered Gorran’s demands for the
dissolution of both the Kurdish parliament and
government “unrealistic,” and the party should
review its demands.
“If they want to go in another direction with the
talks, then we will support them in implementing a
mutually suitable program,” said the PUK member.
In addition, several other political parties and
civil society organizations have indicated they are
preparing the ground for trilateral talks involving
the KDP, PUK and Gorran.
Earlier last week, Gorran issued a statement
announcing seven points “for the solution of the
Kurdistan region’s problems,” and demanding that the
Kurdish cabinet and parliament be dissolved and that
new elections be held in three months’ time.
In an interview on KNN, Gorran’s official television
station, Mustafa said on Sunday that their radical
demands were “the best way to resolve the existing
crisis” in the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
“We believe there is now a deep and
multi-dimensional crisis existing in the Kurdistan
region,” said Mustafa on the program. “It has a
political dimension, as well as economic, social and
educational dimensions.”
The two Kurdish ruling parties and their affiliated
organizations immediately reacted with a flurry of
angry statements.
“Reforms cannot be made by a murderer,” read a
recent front-page headline of Hawler, a daily
newspaper affiliated with the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP) led by President Massoud Barzani, in
reference to Mustafa,www.ekurd.netwho
was allegedly involved in atrocities committed
during past Iraqi Kurdish civil wars.
The impact of Gorran’s call for the government to
step down has been weakened by a lack of support
from the other opposition parties.
The two opposition Islamic parties supported the
ruling parties in saying there was no need for the
Kurdish government to step down, but simply to
reform.
“We will try to arrange a meeting for the three
parties and we are open to…other parties being
included as well,” said Kurdistan Islamic Union
spokesman Salahaddin Ba-Bakir.
Abdul-Star Majed, a Political Bureau member of the
Kurdistan Islamic Group (locally known as Komal),
told Rudaw that his party had always wanted to help
normalize relations between Gorran and the ruling
parties.
However, a PUK senior official said the reason
tensions had eased was because of “outside
pressure,” without specifically pointing to any
party.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency, rudaw.net
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