Kurdistan Seeks to Annex Other Iraqi Provinces
Al-Hayat reports in Arabic that the Kurdistan Alliance has responded to the Iraqi parliament's passage of a bill concerning provincial elections. (The bill was vetoed by Kurdish President Jalal Talabani).
The committee in the Kurdistan Parliament in charge of revising the Kurdistan constitution has proposed language that would formally incorporate portions of four provinces into the Kurdistan Regional Government (the four provinces to be dismembered are Diyala, Kirkuk, Mosul and Salahuddin, on the grounds that they have Kurdish populations). The language will be presented to the KRG parliament for consideration during its August recess. The Kurdistan constitution will be voted on by referendum.
The conflict between Kurds and Arabs over Kirkuk is a crisis waiting to happen.
McClatchy rounds up political violence for Thursday:
' "A roadside bomb planted outside the residence of Dawa Party member, Abdulrahman Mohammed Dawood in Zafaraniyah, southeastern Baghdad exploded injuring Dawood and two of his security detail at 11 a.m. Thursday."
Gunmen attacked a checkpoint manned by Awakening Council, a U. S backed militia, in Adhamiyah at 9 a.m. killing two members. The gunmen used silencers on their weapons, said Iraqi Police.
One unidentified body was found by Iraqi Police, Thursday. It was found in Nidhal Street, central Baghdad.
Nineveh
A suicide car bomber targeted a checkpoint manned by Iraqi Army in al-Intisar neighbourhood, eastern Mosul killing two soldiers, injuring two others.
Diyala
A female suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt targeted an Awakening Council Commander in Baquba, Naeem al-Dulaimi at 3 p.m. Thursday. The explosion, which took place in a car dealership while Dulaimi was checking a car killed him, his two security guards and four civilians, injuring at least twenty four others including women and children. '
Labels: Iraq
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/26/2008 01:16:00 AM
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8 Comments:
Careful prof. Michigan also has a Kurdish population, so talk nicely about Talabani and Barazani or it would be included in the referendum.
I'd like to see a map that depicts what the Kurdistan parliament is proposing, but I suspect that it will raise quite a fuss in Baghdad and Ankara (not to mention Kirkuk and Mosul) if they pursue a maximal expansion
Dear Professor Cole
Do you suppose that Kurdistan is the blue touch paper of the Southern Caucuses?
If the situation in Northern Iraq goes bad will the US troops be able to withdraw?
Could we by any chance have one of your excellent essays on the concept of Kurdistan and its effectiveness in inserting a spanner in the works.
As well as Kirkuk the main "disputed areas" are the areas around:
* al-Hamdaniya,
* Aqra,
* Makhmour,
* Mandali,
Those interested in this topic would find keeping their eyes open for reports from those areas worth their while.
The "disputed areas" are more than the four mentioned in the comment above. The UN has recommended that Aqra and Makhmour be run by the Kurds. These are largely Kurdish in population and character so the decision is not controversial. The other two, Christian Hamdaniya and mixed Mandali, should stay outside Kurdish control. The Kurds, who seem to think that they can get what they want by screeming very loud just like horrid kids, have refused.
The Kurdish Parliament has in fact already annexed large parts of Iraq stretching all the way down to Misan in the south. According to the map Nineveh province is split into the lush and rich north under Kurdish ownership and the impoverished dry south under Iraq's control. Mosul city itself is surrounded by Kurdish area bar a road link to Iraq, and the larger eastern part of the city is also annexed. Ta'meem (Kirkuk) is 100% Kurdish including the purely Arab south west. Half of the Diyala province is annexed, and so are parts of Wasit and Salahuddin.
The annexation was announced a long time ago (about two years as I recall.)
Re the missing map of eretz Iraqi Kurdistan.
The more I look for authoritative maps, the confuseder I get. Is there a boundary that both Baghdad and Erbil agree on? The Kurd gov't website doesn't offer a map. Curious!
The mapless KRG website (in English) has a report of the Barzani drive in 2005 to redraw-extend the Kurd territories well S. of Baghdad, along the Iranian border into Wasit province, and get that included in the Iraq Constitution that was voted on just before Maliki's selection.
Quoting from the (2005) KRG web-page:
"We need an official map that marks the boundaries of Kurdistan in the federal Iraq. This redrawn map is based on historical and geographical facts and we are determined to stick to this map," Bakhtiyar said.
"In any negotiations, we might be ready to seek compromises on some political privileges or ministerial posts, but the boundary of Kurdistan is a red line, and Kurdish leaders are committed to this," he said.
Looking for clarification in wikipedia, I read that
"The Kurdistan Regional Government currently has constitutionally recognised authority over the provinces of Erbil, Dohuk, and Suleimaniya, as well as de facto authority over parts of Diyala and Ninawa and Kirkuk (at-Ta'mim) provinces."
Former warlord Barzani wields defacto authority over disputed and embattled Diyala territory? Kinda makes me wonder about the ethno-sectarian character of the 30,000 troops Maliki says are poised to surge into Diyala this week.
There is a 2003 UK MoDefense map at
http://www.pcgn.org.uk/The%20Kurdish%20Toponymy%20of%20Northern%20Iraq.pdf
Burried below the footnotes, this map shows two borders: The Kurdish Autonomous Region boundary follows the zig-zag provincial borders of the usual three provinces. On the same map, the Kurdish Regional Government Boundary lops off the N. spur and other parts of Dayala, shaves bits off Ta'min above Kirkuk, leaves out a big chunk of SE Arbil, and includes a larger chunk of NE Ninevah above Mosul.
Help!?
The current bounderies of Iraqi Kurdistan of only the three governorates of Erbil, Sulaimania and Duhok are not the real ones simply because they are based on the so called Green-line imposed by US in 2003.If we go little back we will find that not only a heavy compaign of Arabization against Kurdish areas by evicting Kurds and replacing them with Arabs and not only in Kirkuk but also in Sinjar, Khanaqin, Makhmour, Shaikhan Mandali,ect..This campaing had another dimension that was used; the administrative division in Iraq was also employed. For example when Duhok was declared a Governorated in late 1960s most of the Kurdish areas were left with Mosul. A simple look at the map will show the reader what I am taliking about.Towns like Atrush and Shaikhan in the heart of Kurdistan 100% Kurdish were left with Mosul. The current boundaries of Iraqi Kurdistan goes back to 1991 during the creation of a safe haven which was very small at thebeginning expanded later to bring refugees back home from Turkey and Iran after the mass axodus of that year following chemical attacks by Saddam.These lines were never meant to be Kurdistan borders and they excluded over 40% of Kurdish lands to be settled after the removal of the regime.
Lesson #1: Never ever set a bad precedent by leaving a huge chunk of your country under the control of anyone. At the height of the insurgency, Barzani should have said the following. We will not cooperate, we will not send our peshmergas to Baghdad to quell the insurgency until a newly drawn map of southern Kurdistan is recognized by the U.S. An opportunity lost is an opportunity lost forever.
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