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Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani says
Kurds can replace him in six months
15.2.2011
By Nawzad Mahmoud
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February 15, 2011
ERBIL/SULAIMANIYAH,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — Although all the Kurdish
political parties are making promises to maintain
unity in dealing with Baghdad’s Arab parties over
Kurdistan’s non-local affairs, they are witnessing
their highest rift since the United States-led
invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Relations between the Gorran opposition movement and
the ruling bloc – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)
and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – were
seriously damaged after the opposition party issued
a statement in late January calling for major
reforms and the dissolution of the Kurdish Regional
Government (KRG) and parliament.
The statement came amid the protests in Egypt and
Tunisia that led to the overthrow of the governments
in both countries.
“The political earthquake that happened in Tunisia,
and later in Egypt, may prove to be the beginning of
a radical change in the entire Middle East,” said
Gorran’s leader, Nawshirwan Mustafa, on his party’s
KNN television station Sunday, adding that it could
extend to Iraqi Kurdistan as well.
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“This is not a place where you can say that the
president, the parliament and the government are in
power for ever,” said Kurdistan President Massoud
Barzani. Photo: KRG |
“The one-party system we have in Sulaimaniyah and
Erbil will collapse,” added Mustafa, referring to
the Kurdistan region’s two largest provinces where
the PUK, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, and
the KDP, led by Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani,
hold sway respectively.
Gorran’s revolutionary calls have not only
infuriated the KDP and PUK, who have accused the
opposition party of encouraging a coup against the
“legitimate institutions” of Iraqi Kurdistan,www.ekurd.netbut
also have made the two ruling parties rethink their
policies. The Kurdistan region has been experiencing
a war of words between the ruling parties and the
main opposition group ever since.
On Sunday, President Barzani called for reform in
the parliament and government in regard to
corruption and the lack of public services,
emphasizing that the Kurdish government was
democratic.
“This is not a place where you can say that the
president, the parliament and the government are in
power for ever,” said Barzani, addressing a
conference on religious tolerance in the Kurdish
capital, Erbil. “If you like, in two years’ time,
[or] in six months’ time, call for elections, elect
whoever you want and remove whoever you want.”
Despite the tensions within Kurdistan, officials
from both ruling and opposition parties insist that
they have not impacted on the unitary approach in
regard to Baghdad-Kurdistan relations.
Bakir Hama Sdiq, a member of parliament from the
Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), one of the smaller
Kurdish opposition parties, said relations between
Kurdish lawmakers are “fortunately normal and
without problems,” and that the tensions in
Kurdistan had not made their way to Baghdad.
He said handling the immense challenges that existed
between Baghdad and the KRG was difficult, so it was
necessary for Kurdish lawmakers in the Iraqi capital
to have better relations with each other.
The tensions were especially high in Sulaimaniyah
city, the location of the powerbases of both Gorran
and the PUK. The city’s security forces, controlled
by the PUK, deployed tanks around Gorran’s
headquarters, further increasing tensions, but the
tanks were removed after the news of their
deployment made it to the media. Also, to protest
against Gorran’s demands, PUK supporters took to the
streets there.
However, there are attempts being made to soothe the
tensions between Gorran and the Kurdish ruling
parties, mainly Barzani’s KDP.
Ali Bapir, leader of the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG),
another opposition party, is playing the role of
mediator between Barzani and Mustafa, who have never
sat down together since the establishment of Gorran
in 2009, according to Zana Rustai, a senior KIG
official. “He has exchanged words between Kak
Massoud and Kak Nawshirwan,” added Rustai, using a
respectful Kurdish word of address for both men.
Some officials downplay the tensions between Gorran
and the KDP.
Muayad Tayib, a KDP lawmaker in the Iraqi
parliament, said he was happy because he believed
his party’s relations with Gorran were normal and
not affected by the tensions in Kurdistan.
However, he said his parliamentary bloc was abiding
by the statement released by the ruling parties in
Kurdistan and the presidency of the Kurdistan
region.
“We have made it clear that comparing the situation
in Kurdistan to Egypt and Tunisia is inappropriate,”
said Tayib.
As a range of disputes between Baghdad and Kurdistan
over issues such as territory and budget need to be
settled, Kurdish lawmakers say they will work
together to defend Kurdish interests in the Iraqi
parliament.
Adel Abdullah, a PUK lawmaker, said the political
environment was “different here in Baghdad and we
cannot permit tensions among ourselves here, given
the challenges that we are facing.”
He expressed hope that Kurdish lawmakers from all
groups would continue their relations in a positive
way.
Gorran has eight lawmakers in Baghdad, while the
KDP-PUK dominated bloc has 58.
Saman Fawzi, another PUK lawmaker in Baghdad, said
Kurdish lawmakers had refrained from speaking to the
Arab media about the tensions between their parties
back in Kurdistan.
“We have always said [to the Arab media] that these
are our own problems and we will sort it out among
ourselves,” said Fawzi during a Kurdish television
broadcast.
But Abdullah, the PUK lawmaker, said cracks could
appear within the Kurdish front in Baghdad if
sensitive issues like oil and budget were discussed
in parliament in the future.
The KIU’s Sdiq, however, insisted that the Kurdish
parties in Baghdad were showing a good example.
“We drink tea in the cafeteria together,” he said.
“If the same good relations we have here would
prevail in the Kurdistan region then there would be
no problem.”
Bayazid Hassan, a Gorran lawmaker, echoed Sdiq’s
views saying the parties would “work together
normally here in defense of Kurdish rights. We all
want to secure the Kurdish interests here and there
is no disagreement among us.”
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