Calls for a permanent solution to the {chronic} Kirkuk crisis

Calls for a permanent solution to the {chronic} Kirkuk crisis

Iraq  09/13/2023
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 Baghdad: Haider Al-Jaber

The Kirkuk crisis raised questions once again about the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil, a crisis that resolves after every election, and worsens and becomes more complicated before it. This is what happened a few days ago, when the agreement to form the government led to the handover of some headquarters in the governorate to the Kurdistan Democratic Party.
However, a wave of Arab-Turkmen anger led to the disruption of the agreement, followed by mutual demonstrations that ended in casualties. The situation was further complicated by the “state” Federal Court decision, which decided to stop all procedures, until the final ruling was announced.
Writer and journalist Salam Al-Zubaidi blamed political niceties that made Iraq's political system unique, unlike all democratic systems.
Al-Zubaidi told “Al-Sabah”: “The strength of the center is represented by the strength of the laws that regulate the relationship between it and the region, and the extent of implementing those laws away from the courtesies and concessions that take place during the formation of governments with the brothers in the Kurdistan region, as these courtesies sometimes clash with the supreme national interest.” And it may not be accepted by the will of the Iraqi people.” He added, “These courtesies clash with the Kurdish political forces, and here I mean the opposition parties, which see that the Kurdish people are sometimes oppressed by the center’s policies, as many of the outstanding issues concerning the region are still unresolved.” Whether it is related to the distribution of salaries or the monopolization of resources by parties in the region to the exclusion of the rest of the Kurdish people.”
He continued, "Some important laws that join the work between the center and the region have been distorted and kept from voting in Parliament, including the (oil and gas) law, which sets a radical solution to the process of exporting the region's oil and distributing wealth in a way that keeps the two sides away from the conflict and disputes that recur on an annual basis with the approaching... Dates for approving the country’s general budget.
Al-Zubaidi suggested that “the continuation of these economic and political crises is leading us to division and leading us to a state of instability similar to what happened recently in Kirkuk, which is one of the reflections of the political niceties and prior agreements we mentioned that would have almost poured the oil of discord on the components of one people and dragged us into the fires of fighting had it not been for it.” The wisdom of dealing with it was like the water that extinguished the fires of the crisis.”
In turn, writer and journalist Muhammad Wadah puts forward several proposals to resolve the crisis and come up with a just political system.
Waddah told “La Sabah”: “Talk about the crisis between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region, specifically represented by the Kurdistan Democratic Party, is a (chronic) crisis and not a passing one, and whenever it emerges or is talked about the dispute between Baghdad and the region, it is on the basis of two main issues, despite the There are many problems and points of disagreement,” he added, “The first issue is the financial budget or the financial share of the Kurdistan region from the general budget of Iraq, and the second issue, which is the most prominent, is represented by the city of Kirkuk and the implementation of Article (140), which the Kurdistan region sees and wants to be part of the region.” ".
The writer believed that “the most effective solution to the chronic dispute between Baghdad and Erbil regarding the region’s share of the budget and the Kirkuk issue; the first is to maintain the region’s share in the federal budget, but the funding is calculated from the oil revenues that the Erbil government obtains from selling oil, and what is more goes back to the treasury.” The state and what is lacking can be funded by the federal government and under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Oil or the SOMO company,” and he stated, “With regard to the issue of Kirkuk, it must be decided finally and radically by a decision of the city’s residents, away from the political interventions and agreements that took away the right of its people, to leave the city as it is.” The current situation without tampering with demographic diversity, settlement, land fragmentation, and control of headquarters.”
Waddah called for “coexistence in Kirkuk to be based on citizenship and the exclusion of any ambitions to partition it and annex it politically or geographically to this region or that state, because the city of Kirkuk is Iraqi, it belongs to Iraq, and is rich in its national, religious, linguistic, and oil diversity, and its survival is a bet on the survival of Iraq, and its partition will result in the fragmentation and disintegration of Iraq.” ".

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