Baghdad increases pressure on Iraqi Kurds to cancel independence referendum

[ltr]Baghdad increases pressure on Iraqi Kurds to cancel independence referendum[/ltr]
[ltr][size=13]Since 2017-09-28 at 09:06 (Baghdad time)
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Baghdad Mawazine News
BAGHDAD - Baghdad has increased pressure on Iraq's Kurds to demand the abolition of the ballot on independence while the Iraqi parliament urged the central government to send troops to control the vital oil fields under the control of Kurdish forces.

Intensifying efforts to isolate the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq, which supported secession in a referendum on Monday and angered neighboring countries, Baghdad called on foreign governments to close their consular missions in the Kurdish capital of Erbil.

The final results of the referendum, which was broadcast on Wednesday, showed that 93 percent of those who voted voted for independence while seven percent rejected it. The Electoral Commission said more than 3.3 million voters, representing 72 percent of voters, cast their ballots.

The referendum raised fears of a new conflict in the region. A delegation of the Iraqi armed forces went to Tehran to coordinate military efforts in a move that appears to be part of the government's reprisals in Baghdad following the referendum.

Iran and Turkey also oppose any move toward Kurdish secession from Iraq and their armies have begun joint exercises near their border with Iraqi Kurdistan in recent days. Iraq and Turkey also conducted joint military exercises.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stressed the need for Iraq's borders to remain unchanged, will meet in Ankara on Thursday. Russian oil company Rosneft is increasing its investments in Kurdistan.

Foreign airlines began suspending flights to the two airports in Kurdistan after the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority said international flights to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah were suspended at 1500 GMT on Tuesday.

The Kurdish authorities rejected Baghdad's request to cancel the referendum as a condition for dialogue and the handing over of international airports in the region.

Turkey, which has threatened to impose sanctions on the Kurds, said its border with northern Iraq was still open but could not continue. However, the number of trucks passing through the border has decreased.

* Turkish concerns

For 30 years, Turkey, which has the largest number of Kurds, has been waging a revolt in the mainly Kurdish southeast and Ankara fears the referendum in Iraq's Kurdistan could ignite their separatism.

The Kurds, who run a semi-autonomous province in Iraq, see Monday's referendum as a historic step in a generations-long effort to create a Kurdish state.

Iraq says the vote is unconstitutional, especially since it was not conducted in the Kurdish region alone, but also in disputed areas under Kurdish control in northern Iraq.

The United States, major European nations, Turkey and Iran, Iraq's neighbors, vehemently opposed the referendum as a cause of instability while all sides are still fighting the hard-line Islamic state.

Massoud Barzani, head of Iraq's Kurdistan region, said on Tuesday that the Kurds had supported independence.

The result angered Baghdad. The Iraqi parliament, in a meeting boycotted by the Kurdish deputies, Prime Minister Haider Abadi to send troops to the oil-controlled region of Kirkuk and control of the oil fields there.

The Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took control of the multi-ethnic Kirkuk region in 2014 when the Iraqi army fled in the face of Islamic state fighters who seized about a third of Iraq's territory. The movement of the Kurds prevented the oil fields from falling into the hands of the Islamic state.

The decision issued by the Iraqi Council of Representatives that "the government to return the northern fields in Kirkuk and the disputed areas to oversee and control of the Federal Oil Ministry."

Arabs and Turkmen live in an area where Kurds say they have historical rights. The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) annexed the region to its independence referendum on Monday.

* Delegation of negotiations

Barzani said the referendum was not binding, but the aim was to obtain a mandate to negotiate with Baghdad and neighboring countries the peaceful separation of the region.

The Baghdad government has rejected dialogue.

Abadi, a moderate Shiite Arab politician, is under pressure to take punitive measures against the Kurds. Iranian-backed Shi'ite factions have threatened to march into Kirkuk.

And left the Kurds without a state after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire about 100 years ago. About 30 million Kurds are distributed to northern Iraq, southeast Turkey and areas in Syria and Iran.

In the modern era, the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq has become the closest to the Kurds to the state. The region flourished and enjoyed a great deal of peace while the rest of Iraq was in a state of civil war for 14 years.

Since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Kurds have had to balance carefully between their aspirations for complete independence, threats of retaliation from their neighbors, and Washington's reluctance to redraw the border.

Over the past four years they have managed to achieve some economic independence by setting up a pipeline to sell oil through pipelines to a port in Turkey. But this keeps them at the mercy of Ankara, which takes a strict approach of official independence.

The Kurds say the referendum recognizes their contribution to the face of the Islamic state organization after the militant organization outweighed the Iraqi army in 2014.

Iraq's Kurds have been close allies of the United States since Washington gave them protection from Saddam Hussein in 1991. But the United States has repeatedly urged Kurds to avoid unilateral action so as not to endanger Iraq's stability or anger Turkey.

The State Department said it was "very disappointed" with the decision to hold the referendum. The European Union regretted that the Kurds had not responded to his calls for the referendum not to be held
[/ltr][/size]
[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]