By: D. Jason Berggren

Florida International University

Miami, Florida, USA

djberggren@hotmail.com

One of the contentious issues with the drafting of the Iraqi Constitution is whether the post-Saddam Iraq should be a federal republic or not.  The Kurds favor federalism as a bulwark against the prospect of another tyrannical centralized regime.  For them, federalism means security and preservation of nationhood.  Sunni and Shiite Iraqis fear that federalism may embolden Kurdish desires for outright independence thereby weakening their communities.  As the Associated Press recently reported, radical cleric Muqtada al Sadr led rallies of Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis opposing federalism and the potential for disunion.  Supporters of al Sadr chanted, “No to separation; yes to unity.”  Sadr assistant Hazim al Aaraji said, “we are one united people whether we are Sunnis or Shiites, Kurds or Arabs.”  They fear federalism “would rip away the unity of the nation.”  The fear is a separate Kurdish state.  Iran and Turkey who also have large Kurdish minorities within their borders also fear and oppose Kurdish independence.  Though the ideal may indeed be Kurdish independence, they are presently prepared to join a federal Iraq. 

All the Kurds are asking for is to codify a formal right to secede.  They want to join their fellow Iraqis in creating a new government, just not a centralized, unitary one.  They want a federal republic with the right to withdraw.  This is understandable.  As a clear minority that suffered and were gassed under Saddam Hussein’s Sunni regime, the Kurdish demand for the right to secession is understandable, logical, and moral. 

It is recommended here that the Kurds drop their demand for a formal recognition of their right to secede.  Why?  Because they already have that right! 

Kurdish leaders need to remind the Bush administration of our secessionist origins.  Though we can recite by heart parts of the Declaration of Independence: “all men are created equal,” “certain inalienable rights,” “endowed by our Creator,” “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” how often to we or those in Washington read the whole document?  The Declaration of Independence is not fundamentally about human equality.  It is a document that presents a people’s desire, its case, and right to go its own way.  It is a document that justifies the occasional need and moral right of secession.  It is a declaration of independence!  Thirteen British colonies wanted a divorce.

The Declaration does not begin with noble statements of human equality and individual rights.  No, the document begins with the first right—the right to collective, not individual, self-determination: “When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them.”  In other words, the Kurds already possess a natural and divine right to secede.  No constitution, interpretation of a constitution, prior losses on the battlefield, or international opinion can diminish or eliminate that inalienable right.  It is not necessary to codify it; under God, they are entitled to it and can invoke it if a future “long train of abuses and usurpations” happens to them under a new Iraqi government.        

What the Kurds should insist in the wording of the new constitution something like “each region and people of Iraq acting in its sovereign character voluntarily consents to form this federal government.”  By including the words “sovereign character” and “voluntarily consents” the Kurds would be expressing that by their free will they give their approval to form a federal union.  Furthermore, without needing to formally express it, the right of secession is an attribute of sovereignty.  As a corporate entity freely joins, it may also freely leave.  That is the essence of sovereignty—the right to self-determination.  The Kurds have it, all peoples have it.   Let the Iraqi constitution proceed.