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No More Kurdish Concessions On The Draft Constitution!

By: Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany

Oct 2, 2005

There is a misconception in the American administration, that by giving in to the unrealistic demands of a group of Arab Sunni politicians( Who erroneously claim to represent all Arab Sunnis) to amend the draft  constitution, the Arab Sunni sponsored insurgency and terrorism will  eventually subside.

  The Americans have been pressurizing their Kurdish allies ( mainly the leadership of KDP and PUK) to give away many of the important Kurdish achievements concerning federalism, Iraqi identity, voluntary union, distribution of wealth in the draft constitution , merely to satisfy a group of nationalistic and Islamic  fundamentalist Arab Sunnis, which in no way credibly represents the Arab Sunni minority in Iraq. The amazing thing is that those Arab Sunni politicians are demanding mainly from Kurds to give  endless concessions as the price for Arab Sunnis  not  to boycott the proposed referendum on the constitution on the October 15 2005.

The Kurdish leadership is somehow lenient to cave in to those American pressures and the chauvinistic demands of the Arab Sunni politicians without even consulting with Kurdish parliament or the spectrum of political parties in Iraqi Kurdistan. At a time when  the KDP and PUK failed to fulfill their promises to unite their administrations, despite the repeated assurances from the leaders of both parties that it was a matter of days before the two administrations will unite( these promises now are months old!!), they show amazing readiness to make serious concessions which concern the future of Kurds and Kurdistan just because the American administration is looking for a quick fix on the expense of Kurds to get out of the Iraqi mess. And although the draft constitution have been already passed by the Iraqi parliament and was delivered to the United Nations to be printed and distributed to the Iraqi population ahead of the October 15 2005 referendum, the Kurdish leaders and American Ambassador are still talking of making additional alterations in the draft constitution on the expense of Kurds. The American envoy Mr.. Khalilzadeh and the Arab Sunni group are asking only the Kurds to make concessions as if only the Kurds have achieved anything in the constitution.  

The insistence of The Arab Sunni politicians to drop federalism, to insist on Arab identity of Iraq and to ensure the central control of wealth in Iraq  is targeting mainly the very articles in the constitution which gave the Kurds something to celebrate about (even when the crucial issues of right of self-determination and the return of Kirkuk to Kurdistan  was dropped or postponed in this draft constitution).  

The KDP and PUK leaders have no right to act single handed on such vital issues without debating it with the Kurdish public and the elected Kurdistan parliament and any further concessions is tantamount to treason and will motivate ever increasingly frustrated Kurds to say No to the draft constitution and to undermine the power basis and legitimacy  of KDP and PUK in Kurdistan.  

The Kurds are already experiencing how the Al-Jaafari government  relegating on its promises and are acting single handed without consultation with their Kurdish allies and the failure of this government so far to start the process of implementation of article 58 of TAL concerning Kirkuk and other Arabzed parts of Iraqi Kurdistan. In the future A Shiite- Sunni  Arab dominated Iraqi government will be be even more calcitrant regarding those demands.

The only gains for KDP and PUK is that they will be able to continue their corruption Plagued administrations in the three provinces of Slaimani, Hawler and Duhok and to sustain their  absolute power in those limited regions which constitutes at  less than 50 % of Iraqi Kurdistan ( the other 50% in Kirkuk, Khanaquin, Shangal, Shekhan, Makhmour, Tuzkhurmatu are still run by the central government and are outside the jurisdiction of Kurdistan regional government(s).) The Kurdish public must be alerted about the current suspicious intermediation of Mr. Khalilzadeh between the Arab Sunni alleged representatives and the ever increasingly concession happy Kurdish leadership.