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SLG

Kurds shun Saddam's flag and threaten to secede from Iraq
IBON VILLELABEITIA AND MUSSAB AL-KHAIRALLA IN BAGHDAD AND SHAMAL AQRAWI IN ARBIL

THE leader of Iraq's ethnic Kurds brandished the threat of secession yesterday as a row with the Baghdad government over the flying of the Iraqi national flag exposed an increasingly bitter rift.

After the Kurdish regional government banned the use of the Iraqi flag on public buildings, the country's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, issued a blunt statement demanding the national tricolour be reinstated and implying that the Kurds' own banner was illegitimate.

The development came as the Baghdad government said it had arrested the country's second most senior figure in al-Qaeda, "severely wounding" the organisation.

Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan region, told its parliament that Iraq's flag was a symbol of his own people's past oppression, and called on the Iraqi parliament to adopt a new flag.

"If at any moment we, the Kurdish people and parliament, consider that it is in our interests to declare independence, we will do so and we will fear no-one," he warned.

A terse statement from Mr Maliki's office, made no direct mention of the Kurds and said: "The Iraqi flag is the only flag that should be raised over any square inch of Iraq, until parliament makes a decision as laid down in the constitution."

Mr Maliki is an Arab from the Shiite Muslim majority, and the symbolism of the dispute exposes an increasingly bitter rift between Arabs and Kurds, the second great threat to Iraq's survival as a unified state, after the growing sectarian conflict between Arab Sunnis and Shiites.

Mr Barzani, one of the guerrilla leaders who wrenched the mountainous north from Saddam Hussein after the 1991 Gulf war, often refers to Kurdistan's right to secede if the US-backed project to establish a decentralised federal democracy fails.

Largely free of Baghdad's control for 15 years and spared the violence that followed the US invasion in 2003, the Kurds have prospered. But their territorial designs on Iraq's northern oilfields around Kirkuk are a potential flashpoint for violence.

Mr Barzani's Decree No 60 stated: "All government sites that used to raise the Baathist flag must lower it and hoist the flag of Kurdistan in its place."

Recalling the suffering of Kurds in Saddam's Anfal military campaign of 1988, for which the former leader and several Baath party aides are now on trial, Mr Barzani said: "This is the flag of the Baath and Anfal, of chemical attacks and mass graves."

Meanwhile, hours after an "embarrassed" US military again postponed a ceremony to hand command of Iraqi troops to the government, the national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, announced that al-Qaeda leader Hamid Juma Faris al-Suaidi had been seized some days ago.

Relatively anonymous, Suaidi, alias Abu Humam or Abu Rana,was captured hiding in a building with a group of followers. "Al-Qaeda in Iraq is severely wounded," Mr Rubaie said.

He said Suaidi had been involved in ordering the bombing of the Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, that unleashed the wave of tit-for-tat killings now threatening civil war. Iraqi officials blame al-Qaeda for the attack, but the group denies it.

Little is known about Suaidi. Mr Rubaie named his as the deputy of Abu Ayyub al-Masri, a shadowy figure, probably Egyptian, who took over the Sunni Islamic group when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed.

Despite these reported successes, violence has continued. A Pentagon report said this week attacks had risen by 24 per cent in the past three months as violence extended north beyond Baghdad. Iraqi casualties soared by 51 per cent over the quarter.

Washington is anxious for the new Iraqi army it has been training to take over security of Iraq's provinces and pave the way for a withdrawal of its 140,000 troops. A key step is the transfer of operational control of the army to Mr Maliki.

But a handover ceremony on Saturday was postponed at the last minute, first to Sunday, then indefinitely, after a dispute emerged between the government and Washington over the wording of a document outlining their armies' new working relationship.

An Iraqi government source said: "We want thorough control and the freedom to make decisions independently."

US spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson played down any arguments and said he expected a signing soon. "It is embarrassing but it was decided it was better not to sign the document," he added.

sandmountainslim · Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 4:27 pm Post subject:

Good!
They should rebel against the Turks while they are at it!
Kurdistan is a NATION which has been oppressed and held in bondage for too long.
Deo Vindice
WP
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wisnaeme · Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:21 pm Post subject:

Whether Dubya, Bliar, Turkey, Iran,Syria,France or any other interfering rascals or carpet baggers from any other nation likes it or not, Iraq will separate it's self into three differing parts. Why are they prolonging the agony? Iraq as it is now, was a result of some interfering self interested nations and their lackeys drawing straight lines on a map, splitting tribes, clans,cultures and religious groups apart and mixing others not of the same into some sort of dog's dinner of an artificial country. It was convenient you see and they couldn't let that nasty Turkey or any one else have control of the oil, could they? No they wanted to control that. So what's changed? not a lot,some new players, same old game. Saddam was not the despotic ruler of one state. He was the despotic ruler of a mini empire consisting of five groupings of peoples with three major groupings held together by terror and force and now terror and force an being used to encourage the dissolvement of Iraq while others outwith Iraq use force to control and hold together an artificially created state for their own benefit and their own interests. It would be nice if the inhabitants of Iraq were compliant,docile and could be herded like sheep.Unfortunately for those who choose to interfer in their affairs for selfish gain, they are definitely not sheep,nor do they choose to be chased around by sheepdogs to be cornered, penned and fleeced for others to profit by.The only solution to the problem is for the "democratic " forces to disengage, retire and then to reach some sort of an agreement and accommodation in that sequence and not the other way round.
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They distain all things above their reach and prefer all countries before their own." pluralisation of Thomas Overbury.

Neil · Posted: Mon Sep 04, 2006 5:34 pm Post subject:

& if Turkey & Iran march into Kurdistan (quite likely bearing in mind that Turkey is already doing it in a small way) are we going to fight them?
_________________
The aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

Blackadder · 'Our Scotland' Fossil Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 4089

It looks like the great dream of a One-World government is even further away than ever!

SLG · Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 3:02 pm Post subject:

Pre-condition for Turkey to enter the EU?

wisnaeme · Posted: Tue Sep 05, 2006 5:37 pm Post subject:

Morph · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 10:39 am Post subject:

Arent Turkey too far into the entry negotiations to throw in this type of clause now SLG?
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"An oppressive government is to be more feared than a tiger"

SLG · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject:

I don't know about the necotiations Morph. I'm sure the treatment of the Kurds will come into it, but It depends how far the EU want to push it. Are Kurdish independence parties not banned in Turkey at present?

Neil · Posted: Wed Sep 06, 2006 3:39 pm Post subject:

I think the French & Austrians in particular, who have said they do not fancy the idea of 60 million extra Moslems in the EU would love the excuse. However the Turks would probably ignore it because they correctly suspect there will always be another excuse to delay their membership.
_________________
The aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

LAz · Nationalist Joined: 28 Feb 2007 Posts: 113

I hope it's not a problem to reply to topics that have not been replied to in a while... but anyhows...

The Kurds should be allowed to break off of Iraq.
Iraq was created right after world war one for one purpose, the british exploitation of oil from the region. The Kurds have always wanted to break off since Iraq was created and they should have that right.

They should not only break off in Iraq, but also in Iran, Syria and Turkey.

Turkey would probably be the hardest place for them to break off because the Turkish repression is extreme and the US openly supports it. In the 1990s the US increased military aid to turkey for the purpose of extending the oppression. The Kurds are not recognized as a minority in Turkey and their language is banned too.

One thing's certain, the Kurdish region of Iraq has pretty much broken off.

Neil · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 12:47 pm Post subject:

There can be no argument for forcing Kurdistan to stay in Iraq, which is pretty much what we are doing. The rest would invilve going to war with these other countries which I would oppose - though obviously all those MPS who supported bombing Yugoslavia are entirely in favour of bombing Turkey, assuming that their position on Yugoslavia was in some way honest Smile

_________________
The aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
H. L. Mencken

Rinty · Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 2:10 pm Post subject: j

A large part of kurdish Iraq WAS autonomous following the first gulf war through to the next one.

I'm with Neil on this although I think the hypocricsy he points to will prevail.