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A Historic Day For Kurds

By: Dr. Nazhad Khasraw Hawramany
nhawramany@yahoo.com
Switzerland

January 8, 2006

The 7th of January 2006 will be remembered as a very special and historic day in the memory of Kurds not only in Iraqi Kurdistan but also in other parts of the divided homeland.

The president of Iraqi Kurdistan Mr. Masuud Barzani along with leading figures of Politbureau`s of both leading parties in Kurdistan , the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) announced on that day the long awaited agreement on unification of the two Kurdish administrations in Hawler and Slaimani, thereby fulfilling their pre-election promises of working towards this unification. There is no doubt that the impact of this step will be far reaching not only for the people of Iraqi-Kurdistan but also for the whole political process in Iraq and the struggle of our Kurdish brethren towards their national rights in other parts of Kurdistan. The Kurds do need this united administration to fulfill their goals of regaining of Kirkuk, Khanaquin, Makhmour, Schangal, and Shekhan to their motherland Kurdistan and to cement federalisms and democracy in Iraq .

The process of unification was painfully slow to the degree that many Kurds started to despair if that will ever again take place, but let us not forget that the rivalry between the two parties have been going on for decades and unfortunately had climaxed into a violent military fratricide (Brakuzhi in Kurdish) in 1994-1996. But during this painful process both political parties and the people of Kurdistan have learned how much damage disunity can cause to our struggle and began to take real steps to get closer to each other particularly on the eve of the operation Iraqi-Freedom 2003 which toppled the regime of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and on the aftermath of this war were they united their efforts in the Iraqi Governing Council (IGC) to write down the Transitional Administrative LAW of Iraq (TAL), which for the first time recognized Kurdistan as a special territory and put down a clear road plan to redress Arabization in Kirkuk and other Kurdistani areas and worked out article 58 of TAL which , if implemented would rejoin Kirkuk into Kurdistan federal region.

Then they have contested together ( the Kurdistani Alliance Slate) the January 2005 elections gaining an impressive 77 seats in the transitional Iraqi assembly of 275 seats, which made them practically King makers in Iraqi policy and opened the way for another historic milestone in the history of Kurds, when for the first time a Kurd was elected as president of Iraq ( Mr. Jalal Talabani) .Their next achievement was the drafting of the permanent Iraqi constitution and its successful passage by about 80% of Iraqi voters in October 2005, this constitution adopted a federal system for Iraq, allowed Kurds to profit from their natural resources and anchored the article 58 of TAL in the new permanent Iraqi constitution with a deadline on December 2007 to finish the process of reversal of Arabization and the referendum on the future of Kirkuk, allowing Kurdish deportees to return to their birthplace in Kirkuk and encouraging Arab settles to move back to their original places in central and south Iraq.
Then there was the December 2005 Iraqi elections, in which the Kurdistani slate came second after the Shiite Alliance, albeit with less seats in the Iraqi national assembly due to the participation of Sunni Arabs this time, the latter came third after Kurdistani slate.

The people of Kurdistan and the Kurdish intellectuals exercised massive pressure on the Kurdish leadership prior to December 2005 elections and there was a real risk of boycotting of the elections by large sections of Kurdish society as a protest against the failure to unite the two administrations and to fight corruption in Kurdistan.

The leadership however managed to mobilise the Kurdish masses to participate in the elections and promised to follow the unification process in ernst after the elections, something which they fulfilled on 7th of January 2006.
The next steps for the united administration should be fighting corruption and working towards provision of basic services in Kurdistan like electricity, clean water, fuel supplies and a Marshall plan to rebuild the infrastructure of Kurdistan and thereby making Kurdistan a model for the region.

I congratulate the people of Kurdistan for this glorious day. I hail the souls of Kurdish martyrs which made such a day possible. I congratulate the Leadership of KDP and PUK for their dedication towards this noble goal.