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Iraqi Kurdistan Referendum, Conversation with Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, Senior Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs “Video”

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Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, Senior Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute.”

Topic Iraqi Kurdistan Referendum: GagruleLive on FAcebook
Conversation with “Dr. Alon Ben-Meir, Senior Fellow at NYU’s Center for Global Affairs and Senior Fellow at the World Policy Institute.” and Wally Sarkeesian Founder.

Erdogan war drums are beating. The tanks are lined up on the border. The threats are loud and fierce. Economic reprisals are promised. is Erdogan threat series or bluffing?

Alliance in Middle East change by days, 

  • who will stop Turkey for going into Iraq and annexing Kurdistan?
  • why Israel supporting kurd independence while Israel has his own problem with Palestine?
  • will Russia and USA eventually recognize Kurdistan?
  • will Kurd stop at Iraqi border?
  • Have look at Kurdish map expansion they even put claim on the Armenia?
  • did Kurd ever had a country or even a kingdom?

Iran Temporary Bans Its Companies Transporting Petroleum From Iraqi Kurdistan

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Despite claims to stay ‘eternal friend of Kurds’, Iran reportedly temporary banned its companies transporting petroleum products from Iraqi Kurdistan.

Earlier in the week, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif stated that Iran would remain an eternal friend of Kurds despite their recent vote to split from Iraq.

Iran is the only country with a large proportion of Kurdish population which manages to cultivate decent relations with them. With Iraqi Kurds Tehran has a long-standing relationship which has deepened after 2014 when Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps started to back Kurdish Peshmerga’s efforts to counter Daesh.

Zarif predicted the Monday referendum, in which 92 percent of 3.4 million people in northern Iraq’s three main Kurdish provinces and in multi-ethnic Kirkuk region voted to have a separate nation state, would have consequences that would not be limited to Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iran and Turkey criticized the referendum amid fears it might strengthen separatist feelings in their own ethnic Kurdish minorities. The United Nations and the United States also decried the Iraqi Kurdish authorities for potentially destabilizing the region. Baghdad has called the vote illegal and has refused to engage in a dialogue with Kurdish leaders.

Airlines suspending flights into Kurdistan, after warnings from Baghdad

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Lebanon’s Middle East Airlines to halt flights to and from KRG as of Friday

EgyptAir to suspend flights to and from Erbil in north Iraq from Friday as per Iraqi government request

Turkish airline Pegasus announced on Wednesday it would immediately suspend flights into Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, after an independence referendum on Monday, according to local media reports.

Lebanese carrier MEA and Egypt’s flag carrier EgyptAir also announced they would suspend flights from Friday.

“For now, we’re stopping. The last flight is on the 29th, until they solve the issue,” MEA chairman Mohammad al-Hout told Reuters on Wednesday.

Two company sources from EgyptAir confirmed the decision.

The moves come after the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority sent a notice to foreign airline companies telling them that international flights to Erbil and Sulaimaniya will be suspended at 1500 GMT and that only domestic flights will be allowed.

The Iraqi government gave the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) three days to hand over control of its airports in order to avoid an international air embargo, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Tuesday evening, according to state TV.

Baghdad last week asked foreign countries to stop direct flights to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, in Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) territory, but only Iran declared such an air embargo, halting direct flights to Kurdistan.

Turkey’s border remains open, for now, minister says

Turkey’s border with northern Iraq remains open, although that does not mean it will remain open, the Turkish customs minister said on Wednesday, adding the number of trucks passing through the border had decreased.

Bulent Tufenkci, who was speaking on live television, also said he did not believe that the developments in northern Iraq would have a big impact on Turkish trade.

President Tayyip Erdogan has said Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if his country halts the flow of trucks and oil across the border, warning that Turkey could take military and economic measures against its neighbour after the 25 September referendum on Kurdish independence.

Iraqi Kurdistan referendum: High turnout in independence vote

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Large numbers of people have taken part in a landmark vote on independence for Iraq’s Kurdistan region, amid growing opposition both at home and abroad.

Votes are still being counted, with a big victory for “yes” expected.

Kurds say it will give them a mandate to negotiate secession, but Iraq’s PM denounced it as “unconstitutional”.

Neighbours Turkey and Iran, fearing separatist unrest in their own Kurdish minorities, threatened to close borders and impose sanctions on oil exports.

The US state department said it was “deeply disappointed” that the vote went ahead.

“We believe this step will increase instability and hardships for the Kurdistan region and its people,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

The referendum passed off peacefully across the three provinces that make up the region, and in areas controlled by Kurdish forces but claimed by Baghdad.

Turnout was estimated at about 72%, according to the electoral commission.

Partial unofficial results published by the Kurdish Rudaw website show that more than 90% have voted for independence.

There were scenes of celebration as the polls closed in the regional capital, Irbil, and in the disputed city of Kirkuk, where a curfew was imposed on Monday night amid fears of unrest.

There was some opposition to the vote among non-Kurdish populations in disputed areas between the Kurdish and Iraqi governments. In Kirkuk, the local ethnic Arab and Turkmen communities had called for a boycott

The vote is being closely watched not only in Iraq but elsewhere in the region because its implications could reshape the Middle East, the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Irbil reports.

Turkey and Iran fear the impact this could have on their own Kurdish communities, our correspondent adds.

In Istanbul, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the vote as “unacceptable” and threatened to close the Iraqi Kurds’ vital oil export pipeline.

“We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it’s done,” he was quoted by Reuters news agency as saying.

He also said his country could close completely the sole border crossing with the region. Traffic there, he said, was currently only being allowed to cross from the Turkish side.

Late on Monday, Iraqi and Turkish officials announced they would hold joint military drills in Turkey in an area bordering the Kurdish region of Iraq.

Iran called the vote “illegal”, having banned all flights to and from the Kurdish region a day earlier.

UN Secretary General António Guterres expressed concern about the “potentially destabilising effects” of the vote.

Iraqi Kurdistan Vote Update: Turkey halts Rudaw broadcast, Iraqi MP: Like Israel, Kurdistan years of war

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Turkey halts Rudaw broadcast on Turksat satellites

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) has halted Rudaw’s broadcast on Turksat satellites.

According to information obtained by Rudaw Media Network, RTUK met Monday afternoon. Representatives of the opposition parties CHP and the pro-Kurdish HDP were outside Ankara and unable to attend the meeting. The meeting proceeded with ruling AKP and nationalist MHP representatives in attendance.

A decision was made to stop Rudaw’s broadcast.

HDP’s Arsin Ungal was unable to attend Monday’s meeting. “RTUK cannot make such a decision because Rudaw has not got its broadcast license from RTUK. That is why I will raise this subject after I return to Ankara,” he told Rudaw.

Rudaw contacted Turksat. A Turksat spokesperson said: “We haven’t yet received the decision. We will stop Rudaw’s broadcast when we receive the decision.”

Turkey opposes Kurdistan’s independence referendum being held on Monday.

Two other Kurdistan media, Kurdistan 24 and Waar TV, have also reportedly had their broadcasts halted on Turksat.

Iraqi MP: Like Israel, Kurdistan will cause years of war

BAGHDAD, Iraq – An Iraqi official has accused “racist” Kurds of trying to establish a second Israel that will throw the region into years of conflict.

“The step that was taken by some racists in Kurdistan will bring instability to the entire region for years to come. The representatives of such efforts had established the state of Israel in 1948,” Mowaffak al-Rubaie, an MP from the ruling Shiite National Alliance told reporters in the Iraqi parliament.

There have been three wars since the creation of Israel, he added. Rubaie is a former National Security Adviser.

“The one who loses the most is our beloved Kurdish nation,” he continued.

On Monday, the Iraqi parliament requested Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to deploy troops to the areas that have come under Peshmerga control since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the latest in a series of measures announced by Abadi. On Sunday, he called on foreign nations to close their air and land borders with the Kurdistan Region.

Rubaie warned that all the achievements made by Kurds in Iraq since 2003 are now under threat.

 

Iraqi MP: parliament mulls arrests of Kurdistan secession advocates

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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) An Iraqi parliament member said Monday that the chamber puts arrests of proponents of Kurdistan’s secession from Iraq as an option in dealing with the divisive referendum.

Hassan Khallati, a member of the Mowaten (citizen) parliamentary bloc, told Alsumaria News that a current referendum held by the autonomous Kurdistan Region violates a recent verdict by Iraq’s federal court which ordered to cancel the vote. He said that overrunning that verdict involves legal consequences.

He said penal measures are considered by a parliament committee formed by the parliament’s speaker to address the referendum, noting that one measure could be “approaching international bodies to arrest whoever endangers the country’s unity and sovereignty”.

Kurds headed to voting stations on Monday to partake in a plebiscite on independence from the central government in Baghdad, a move objected by the Arab-led government in Baghdad, the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and regional powers Iran and Turkey.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has repeatedly vowed to take legal action if Erbil proceeded with the vote.

Kurdistan gained actual autonomous governance based on the 2005 constitution, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of conflicts.

Baghdad and Erbil have for long disputed sovereignty over a number of regions, most notably the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, besides contending over petroleum exports’ revenues from those regions.

Source: https://www.iraqinews.com/baghdad-politics/iraqi-mp-parliament-mulls-arrests-kurdish-secession-advocates/

Iraqi Kurds shrug off threats, Voting began in northern Iraq

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ERBIL/SULAIMANIYA, Iraq (Reuters) – Voting began in northern Iraq on Monday in an independence referendum organized by Kurdish authorities, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from neighboring Turkey and Iran, and international warnings it may ignite yet more regional conflict.

The vote, expected to deliver a comfortable “yes” for independence, is not binding. However, it is designed to give Massoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil producing region with Baghdad and neighboring states.

For Iraqi Kurds – the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago – the referendum offers a historic opportunity despite the intense international pressure to call it off.

“We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades,” said Talat, waiting to cast a vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as group of smiling women, in traditional colorful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign that they voted.

The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their crucial contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.

Baghdad orders Kurdistan region to hand over borders, ports

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Iraq’s central government in Baghdad ordered the country’s Kurdish region to hand over all border crossings and airports to federal government control late Sunday night, hours before the region is set to carry out a controversial referendum on support for independence.

The referendum is set to be held Monday in the three provinces that make up the Kurdistan region as well as dozens of towns and villages that are disputed, claimed by both Baghdad and the country’s Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

The Iraqi government “requests neighboring counties and the countries of the world to deal with the Iraqi federal government exclusively (with regards to) ports and oil,” read a statement from the prime minister’s national security council released Sunday night.

Earlier Sunday, the Kurdish region’s president Masoud Barzani pledged the vote would be held despite pressure from Baghdad and the international community. He said that while the referendum will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region’s “partnership” with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over.

Barzani detailed the abuses Iraq’s Kurds have faced by Iraqi forces, including killings at the hands of former leader Saddam Hussein’s army that left more than 50,000 Kurds dead.

“Only through independence can we secure a future where we will not have the past atrocities,” he said.

Pressure from Baghdad and the international community to call off the referendum has mounted over the past week.

In an address on state television Sunday evening, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi repeated his call for the vote to be canceled.

“The map of Iraq is suffering attempts at division and tearing up of a united Iraq. Discrimination between Iraqi citizens on the nationalist and ethnic foundation exposes Iraq to dangers known only by God,” al-Abadi said from Baghdad. Baghdad, the United States and the United Nations have all voiced strong opposition to the vote, warning it could further destabilize the region as Iraqi and Kurdish forces continue to battle the Islamic State group.

Turkey renewed a bill on Saturday allowing the military to intervene in Iraq and Syria if faced with national security threats, a move seen as a final warning to Iraqi Kurds.

Also Sunday, Iran closed its airspace to flights taking off from Iraq’s Kurdish region following a request from Baghdad. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard also launched a military exercise in its northwestern Kurdish region, in a sign of Tehran’s concerns over the vote.

Iranian Kurdish lawmakers condemned the independence referendum in a statement Sunday and insisted that Iraq maintain its territorial integrity, reported Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

At the Irbil press conference, Barzani said he was unaware that Iran had closed its airspace, but that it was Iran’s “own decision.” The leader also confirmed that there had been shelling along Iran’s border with the Kurdish region.

Barzani addressed concerns that Turkey would shut its border with the Kurdish region following the vote, saying he hoped Turkey would leave the crossing open.

“There will be no benefit for either side,” he said of potential border closures.

Despite fears in disputed territories — Iraqi territory claimed by both the Kurds and Baghdad — Barzani said he didn’t expect violence to follow the vote, explaining that Iraq’s military and the Kurdish fighters known as the peshmerga have “good coordination in the war against terror.”

The peshmerga forces have been instructed not to respond to “provocations,” in Kirkuk, Barzani added.

Associated Press writer Susannah George in Irbil, Iraq, and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

Iran closes airspace to all flights to and from Iraqi Kurdistan

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Iran has closed its airspace to all flights to and from the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in Iraq at the request of the country’s federal government, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) says.

“At the request of the central government of Iraq, all flights from Iran to Sulaymaniyah and Erbil airports as well as all flights through our country’s airspace originating in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region have been halted,” Keyvan Khosravi, a spokesman for the SNSC, said on Sunday.

He added that the decision had been made during an emergency session of the SNSC earlier in the day after Iran’s “political” efforts proved ineffective in the face of Kurdish officials’ insistence on holding a planned referendum on the independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

The Iranian official warned that hasty decisions made by some officials of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region would limit the power of the Iraqi Kurds for engaging in constructive dialogue within Iraq’s government structure and would also pose serious challenges to security of the Kurdish people, the entire Iraq and the region.

There are conflicting reports as to whether a referendum on possible independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan on Monday will go ahead as planned after several regional officials warned the vote could have serious consequences.

The high council for referendum affairs, which is supervised by Iraqi Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, rejected reports of a postponement as rumors, the Kurdistan 24 news station said.

Iraq’s government has called the referendum unconstitutional with Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi rejecting it “whether today or in the future.”

The planned referendum has raised fears of a fresh conflict in the region, which is trying to emerge from years of Daesh campaign of death and destruction.

In a statement on September 18, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Iraq’s Kurdish leaders to scrap an upcoming independence vote, saying it would undermine the ongoing battle in the Arab country against Daesh terrorists.

United States strongly opposes the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s referendum

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Press Statement

Heather Nauert, Department Spokesperson Washington, DC
September 20, 2017

The United States strongly opposes the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s referendum on independence, planned for September 25. All of Iraq’s neighbors, and virtually the entire international community, also oppose this referendum. The United States urges Iraqi Kurdish leaders to accept the alternative, which is a serious and sustained dialogue with the central government, facilitated by the United States and United Nations, and other partners, on all matters of concern, including the future of the Baghdad-Erbil relationship.

If this referendum is conducted, it is highly unlikely that there will be negotiations with Baghdad, and the above international offer of support for negotiations will be foreclosed.

The costs of proceeding with the referendum are high for all Iraqis, including Kurds. Already the referendum has negatively affected Defeat-ISIS coordination to dislodge ISIS from its remaining areas of control in Iraq. The decision to hold the referendum in disputed areas is especially de-stabilizing, raising tensions which ISIS and other extremist groups are now seeking to exploit. The status of disputed areas and their boundaries must be resolved through dialogue, in accordance with Iraq’s constitution, not by unilateral action or force.

Finally, the referendum may jeopardize Iraqi Kurdistan’s regional trade relations, and international assistance of all kinds, even though none of Iraq’s partners wish this to be the case. This is simply the reality of this very serious situation. In contrast, genuine dialogue, the alternative, which we urge Kurdish leaders to embrace, holds the promise of resolving a great many of Iraqi Kurds’ legitimate grievances, and establishing a new and constructive course for Baghdad-Erbil relations that benefit all the people of Iraq.

The Kurds can be proud already of what the referendum process has produced, including more Kurdish unity, reviving the Kurdish parliament for the first time in nearly two years, and placing important issues on the international stage, with partners and friends prepared to build on the spirit of cooperation seen between Iraqi Security Forces and Kurdish Peshmerga in the campaign against ISIS to help resolve outstanding issues. ‎Unfortunately, the referendum next week will jeopardize all of this momentum and more.

The referendum itself is now all the more unnecessary given the alternative path that has been prepared and endorsed by the United States and the international community.