Histyar Qader: Iraqi Kurdish Leaders' No-Good very Bad Year

Histyar Qader writes about Iraqi Kurdish Leaders’ No-Good very Bad Year.

The end of the year brought strife to Iraqi Kurdistan, The northern region has to deal with a reduced area of influence, internal and external political problems, and a financial crisis.

This year brought major transformation to the semi-autonomous northern region of Iraqi Kurdistan and by the end of the year it had become clear that these changes were not necessarily going to be positive. The future is not looking so bright up north.

…

The federal government made it clear who was actually still in charge, closing Kurdish airspace and demanding that international border crossings be put back under federal control. It became very clear, very fast, that much of what many Kurdish voters had been taking for granted as their regional right, had always just been Baghdad doing them a favour — or perhaps being otherwise preoccupied, who knows.

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Internal and inter-party conflicts continue and most recently, in late December, the major opposition parties in Iraqi Kurdistan withdrew from the regional parliament altogether.

Part of the reason for all the internal political tension, analysts say, is because of the loss of the region’s long-term political leadership, a leadership that, for all its faults, had maintained political checks and balances and some semblance of unity.

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Iraqi Kurdish locals had been demonstrating corruption and the fact that many civil servants had not been paid for some months. The Kurdish government has major debts, has seen its revenue sources reduced significantly and owes back pay to hundreds of local workers.

The region that was once doing so well, and seemed so peaceful and prosperous, that it claimed the title “the new Dubai”, has fallen onto extremely hard times, both politically and economically.

Emphasis Mine

Kurdistan has always been an ideal, not a reality. Shared cultural identity is not enough to create a nation state. This has to be a degree of political unity.

In Kurdistan's case, the political unity was personal. As the personalities depart the scene, the political unity dissapates.

It would be difficult to build a shared political vision of Kurdistan based on four (4) separate independence struggles: against Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. The differences between those struggle are currently too great for a united front for the liberation of Kurdistan.