Possible Kurdish State: Federal State or Unitary State?

Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies Vol. XLI, No.1, Fall 2017 Possible Kurdish State: Federal State or Unitary State? Hawre Hasan Hama* Introduction The various Iraqi governments have employed brutal methods against the Kurds between 1921 and 2003, including denial of Kurdish identity, deKurdification , oppression, the creation of security belts, transfer of population, and, in some cases, even ethnic cleansing. Subsequently, many Kurdish national movements have appeared and initiated guerrilla warfare against the Iraqi state for their political and cultural rights1 . Kurdistan emerged as a quasi-state and autonomous region in 1991 after the establishment of the no-fly zone in northern Iraq by the United States— along with the United Kingdom and France—which put an end to Saddam Hussein’s murderous attacks on the Kurds. From this time onwards, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been predominantly ruled by two major parties; the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Mustafa Barzani, established the former in 1946 while Jalal Talabani had founded PUK in 1975 when he split from Barzani’s KDP. Although the two parties have fought the Iraqi regime in the 1980s, they also fought one another2 . The Kurds were actively engaged in a de facto state-building process between 1991 and 2003 with the 17 *Hawre Hasan Hama obtained his MA in International Studies at Sheffield University in the UK. Hawre is currently a lecturer at University of Sulaimani, faculty of law, politics, and department of politics. He is the author of “Politicization of Kurdish Security in Iraq since 2003”. He has published policy papers in the Washington Institute’s Fikra Forum, Open Democracy, Center for Security Studies, Modern Diplomacy, The Kurdish Policy Foundation and Masher Politics & Culture Journal. He is currently a security expert on Kurdistan security affairs at Kurdish Policy Foundation. 1 Hawre Hasan Hama. “Systematic Oppression of Kurdish Society in Iraq between 1925 and 2003”, Masher Politics & Culture Journal, Vol. 2, No. 6, 2017, pp.1-18. 2 Hawre Hasan Hama. The consequences of politicized forces in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Center for Security Studies, 27 January 2017, available at: http://isnblog.ethz.ch/government /the-consequences-of-politicized-forces-in-the-kurdistan-region-of-iraq 18 assistance of a US-led alliance in northern Iraq3 . This de facto state, according to Article 53 of the Transitional Administrative Law in Iraq (interim constitution, 2004), was officially recognized by the Iraqi state. By 2004, the transitional Iraqi government was established (by means of the 2004 Transitional Administrative Law) that officially recognized KRG. Following the passage of the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), the Iraqi government established a new constitution in 2005 which, above all, converted Iraq into a democratic federal state4 . In both the interim constitution of 2004 and the full-fledged constitution of 2005, as will be discussed, longstanding issues between the Iraqi state and KRG were normalized and solved5 . However, practically, once the newly established Iraqi government began to gather strength after 2005 (as discussed later), the Iraqi political elites largely politicized the Kurdish constitutional demands, and they therefore abandoned the Kurdish constitutional demands. This encouraged the Kurds to hold a referendum for independence in September, 25, 2017. This is true as Barzani claimed that Baghdad forced the Kurds to hold Referendum, the partnership ended with Iraq6 . KRG has already sought to gain extern sovereignty; the referendum result seems to accelerate the state-building process in the Iraqi Kurdistan. This article firstly argues that KRG’s attempts to secede from the Iraqi state were largely a result of politicization of the Kurdish constitutional rights by the various Iraqi governments. The research will then argue that the form of the Kurdish state should be a federal state regarding the current divisions between the KRG’s de facto administration zones. Why KRG decided to hold an independent referendum The KRG’s decision to hold a referendum on September 25, 2007, is largely a consequence of politicization of the Kurdish constitutional demands by Iraqi political leaders since 2005. KRG was officially recognized by the Iraqi state when Saddam Hussein’s regime fell in 2003 and the new government installed a federal system. In 2004, the Transitional Administrative Law...