http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/050320174
Masoud Barzani: Independent Kurdistan is loyal
response to Peshmerga sacrifices
President of
Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani. Photo: Rudaw.
ERBIL, Kurdistan
Region –The fall of Mosul is likely to mark the beginning of the breakup of
Iraq, as has been the case with countries who have come out of ethnic and
religious conflicts, such as Czechoslovakia, Kurdish President Masoud Barzani
says, adding that an independent Kurdistan would bring more stability to the
Middle East, a region that otherwise has been troubled with massacres and
conflict since the two world wars.
Barzani went on
to say "independence and complete liberation" will be the loyal
reward for the past and present sacrifices of the Kurdish nation.
President
Barzani made these remarks to the Italian newspaper La Stampa, published on
March 5, coinciding with the anniversary of the Kurdish uprising against the
former Iraqi regime in 1991 which eventually gave birth to the present
autonomous Kurdistan Region with its own parliament, government and armed
forces.
"The desire
to keep the united Iraq is there, but the reality is that today Iraq is already
divided by unsolvable problems,” Barzani said when asked whether Iraq will come
out of the war against ISIS as a united state, “Sunnis and Shiites have been
fighting for 1400 years and we Kurds are the victims of this war. We have to
find a new formula of coexistence."
Barzani said
that “too many massacres have occurred, leaving no room for reconciliation,”
with a divided Iraq along the sectarian lines of Sunnis and Shiites, as he
commented on the prospect of an independent Kurdistan, saying that the Kurds
had given a chance to reconcile with the rest of the country after the fall of
Saddam in 2003, but it failed because of the sectarian war between the two
sects that has been going on for 1400 years.
"The
independence of Kurdistan would create an area of stability in this region.
We have already seen too much blood, and injustice,” Barzani said, noting that
an independent Kurdistan will be “based on the rule of law, respect for
democratic rules, coexistence between different identities and a multiparty
system.”
“In the Middle
East we can help to reduce crises and conflicts. It is in everyone's interest,”
Barzani said talking about the impact of an independent Kurdistan on the Middle
East.
Comparing
Kurdistan to a disfunctioning Iraqi state where he said is drowned in the
conflict of the Sunni and Shiites, Barzani said that Kurdistan is and will be
different, since it is not a faith-based society.
"We are a
nation, not a faith,” he said, “The Kurds are Muslims, Christians, Jews,
Yazidis and more but have a common national identity. We are a society based on
the recognition of people's identity, a nation that believes in peaceful
co-existence, a people who have self-determination and which must be protected
by international law. Shiites and Sunnis, however, are faiths and in constant
war with each other. "
“In the Middle
East and Europe, history has shown that states created after the First and
Second World Wars have proved unsustainable and fictitious. Czechoslovakia and
Yugoslavia have faded away, as it happens today to the legacy of Sykes-Picot,”
Barzani said, in reference to an agreement between Britain and France as
negotiated by British diplomat Mark Sykes and his French counterpart Francois
Georges-Picot. The agreement resulted in the creation of present borders of
countries that used to be part of the Ottoman Empire before the First World
War, including Iraq.
President
Barzani also published a statement on late Sunday evening, on the anniversary
of the 1991 uprising, saying that the reward for the past and present sacrifices
of the Kurdish people is “independence, and complete liberation.”
“We commemorate
the uprising at a time where the brave Peshmerga forces have achieved great
victories against the Islamic State terrorists. The Kurdish nation has made
sacrifices and endured hardships,” the statement from President Barzani said,
“Hence, the best loyalty and response to the uprising, the Peshmerga and the
sacrifices made by the people of Kurdistan, is independence and complete
liberation. I deem it essential to tell the enduring people of Kurdistan that a
bright future is awaiting our country, that the uprising and the sacrifices
made by the Peshmerga and the people will bear fruit,” the statement continued,
adding that unity among Kurds have always been a core ingredient behind the
success of the Kurds.
“We, more than
ever, need to be united, live up to our responsibilities and take into account
higher interests of Kurdistan,” the statement added.
Asked by the
Italian newspaper whether the Syrian Kurdistan, also called Rojava, where the
Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has founded a self-declared Kurdish
enclave, can follow the example of Kurdistan Region, President Barzani said
there was an opportunity for Rojava to do so, but PYD lost it, because it is
armed wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG) has accepted the help of the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a named terrorist organization by Turkey, the
European Union and the United States.
The opportunity
was lost "for the simple fact that the YPG has accepted the help of
the PKK, considered a terrorist organization in many countries. The YPG has
also accepted the help of the regime of Bashar Assad. These choices have
separated us from them," Barzani said, "I still hope that they can
change themselves. But these wrong policies compromise the future of Syria's
Kurds. It is only in the interests of the PKK.”
Barzani also
said that the fall of Mosul does not mean the end of ISIS because it will
survive in some other form or shape. To defeat the extremist group, he said,
you have to fight it on many fronts, including its economy and ideology.
