British MP: Kurdish statehood a serious option should Iraq continue to violate constitution
Independence for the Kurdistan Region as a viable alternative should be seriously considered should the Federal Government fail to implement all provisions of the Iraqi Constitution, said a British Member of Parliament.
In a recent interview with Kurdistan 24, Jack Lopresti, a conservative lawmaker and the Chairman of the British All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on the Kurdistan Region, affirmed that the international community could not ignore the Kurdish dream for statehood, especially following the Sep. 25 referendum in the Kurdistan Region which saw 93 percent of voters favoring secession from Iraq.
“Whether the results of the Kurdish independence referendum are formally annulled or not, the world realizes that most of the Kurds wish to leave Iraq, and that wish cannot and should not be ignored forever,” Lopresti said.
He mentioned that the UK had long argued in favor of maintaining the unity of Iraq, but that his position in this regard was different.
“I accepted the Kurds' right to self-determination and was proud to have observed the referendum. I welcomed the often-stated and responsible desire to negotiate independence and the disputed internal boundaries with Baghdad.”
The British lawmaker believes that more and more people will understand why the Kurds want to leave Iraq given the “harsh, violent, and needless reaction of Baghdad to a peaceful referendum that signaled a desire to negotiate a new and better relationship between Erbil and Baghdad.”
Following the Sep. 25 independence vote, Baghdad implemented a series of collective punitive measures against the Kurdistan Region, including an international flight ban on the region’s two airports as well as the use of military force to take over the oil-rich and ethnically diverse province of Kirkuk along with other disputed territories.
“As Masrour Barzani [the Head of the Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC)] and others told me last September, Iraq could get rid of its 'Kurdish problem' and gain a good neighbor.”
Lopresti noted that the UK supported the ‘one-Iraq policy’ on the basis that Iraq benefits from the Kurdish presence which protects the multiethnic nature of the country and acts as a counterweight in the Shia and Sunni divide.
“The West was also wary about the knock-on effects on the fight against Da’esh [Islamic State]. This general support for current sovereign states is part of the traditional doctrine of international relations, but UN charters also support the right to self-determination by peoples. It is up to the Kurds in Iraq, now, to demonstrate their need for statehood and to win support over the coming years if Baghdad is unwilling to treat them as equal citizens in the country,” he added.
Kurdish senior officials have repeatedly complained that Baghdad views the people of the Kurdistan Region as second-class citizens.
The MP added that the Kurdistan Region also needs backing to allow it to reform its economy further, developing agriculture and tourism as well as its industry.
He claimed that while oil revenues are down, new sources of income would go farther in protecting Kurdistan from external shocks, whether it be the volatility of oil prices or Baghdad failing to deliver its budgetary obligations to the Kurds.
Lopresti thinks the Kurds in Iraq have made their views ‘obvious,’ and that they retain the right to self-determination even if the priority, for now, is guaranteeing the safeguarding of their rights defined the Iraqi constitution.
“Clearly, in my view, there would not have been a referendum if the provisions of the constitution had been faithfully and fully carried out,” he continued. “But the Kurds are in an objectively weak position as a landlocked country and statehood, as the Kurdish leadership long stated, has to be implemented with the cooperation of the central government – as was the case, for instance, with Scotland.”
Lopresti stated that the US and the UK negotiated an alternative path with the Iraqi government, which in principle, agreed for a referendum to be held at a later time should Baghdad fail to act in good faith. “I know the US took it off the table, but I don't think that needs to be the final word.”
“If Baghdad now fails again to carry out the constitution and especially to respect the revenue-sharing formula and to pay 17 percent of total Iraqi revenues to the KRG, not just separate provinces, and to move to resolve the status of the disputed territories, then Kurdish statehood should return as a solution,” he asserted.
He explained that the UK’s relationship with the Kurdistan Region remained the same since the referendum, praising British Prime Minister Theresa May for inviting the Kurdistan Region’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to London.
There is growing pressure from France, German, the US, and the UK to encourage proper dialogue between Erbil and Baghdad to resolve their disputes, Lopresti noted.
“I am disappointed that Baghdad feels that its vindictive policy of collective punishment against the Kurds is the best means to win elections and rebuild Iraq after the Da’esh disaster of recent years.”
“The Kurds need friends who are prepared to make clear to Baghdad that the Kurds deserve much better than this, given their brave resistance to the fight against Da’esh and the way in which they have done so much to rebuild Iraq as a whole after decades of dictatorship in the country,” he concluded.
Source: Kurdistan24
