Defense Tech: The Kirkuk Question


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Edited by Christian Lowe \| Contact

The Kirkuk Question

When the Kurds drove Saddam's army out of their homeland in the early nineties, they didn't quite make it as far as Kirkuk, the southernmost city that's predominantly Kurdish. Which for the Kurds was a shame.

Kirkuk sits atop 25% of Iraq's oil and pumps out a million barrels a day. So valuable is Kirkuk that Saddam launched a program in the 1980s called Enfal to shift the city's demographics in favor of the regime by forcibly removing the city's Kurds and paying Arabs to settle in their places.

Now, with Kirkuk just outside the de facto border of Kurdistan, and with the Kurdish region richer and more powerful than the rest of the country, the Kurdistan Regional Government and its lackeys in Baghdad are plotting to redraw Kurdistan's unofficial but very real borders to incorporate Kirkuk.

It's a two-pronged campaign. One effort encourages Kurds to move back to Kirkuk and file suit to reclaim their old properties from Arabs. The other, recently realized, revolves around Article 136 of the new Iraqi constitution. That article, which was pushed hard by President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, requires a referendum in Kirkuk in 2007 asking residents if they want to be part of autonomous Kurdistan.

If the KRG can persuade enough Kurds to move back to the city (which is currently only 40% Kurdish), then the referendum should pass in favor of joining Kurdistan, and Kirkuk's million barrels a day will fund Kurdish schools, roads and security forces instead of Arab schools, roads and security forces.

KRG assembly speaker Adnan Mufti told me the other day that the Kirkuk question is his number one concern. What he didn't say is that it's just step one in the KRG's long-term plan to officially break away from Iraq, a move that Kurds in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria anticipate and that the rest of the world dreads, as it could mean war on many fronts.

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Posted by: april lee at February 14, 2007 05:57 PM

Wait a minute why isnt the oil revenue being shared by all of iraq, I will tell you why because it would be more expensive to the US to purchase.

The US before entry, entered into an entire country and they want to seperate it now. Sorry International law prohibits it unless they want to disregard that to. The US forgets one major obstacle and that is the arabs, the turks the entire nation will not premit this and Iraq will have blood shed for hundred of years to come. If the region doesnt go into an all out nuke turmoil first. America keep dreaming

Posted by: april lee at February 14, 2007 05:55 PM

with friends like the brits, these people, the kurds, don't need enemies.
don't ask them to go to france to sign any piece of paper.
they've heard that all before.

http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/versa/sevres1.html

Posted by: louielouie at January 7, 2006 06:03 PM

I have spent the better part of 2005 in and arround kirkuk. I have personally spoken to many kurds and arabs and I believe the situation to be irresoluable in as much as kurdish nationalism cannot be replaced by "iraqi" nationalism. Thanks to the British in times past, when they drew the borders of Iraq, like so many other places, gave little concern for ethinc and tribal considerations. I personally believe that as soon as the United States pulls its forces, we will see the du jure reality of an independant kurdistan and you will see the city of kirkuk enveloped in ethnic war simmilar to that of the former yugoslavia.

Posted by: Ned Marchant at January 6, 2006 11:46 PM

I believe that most Kurds are an intelligent & educated people, who full well know their sufferings of the past, and the nations & demographics surrounding them in the region. I think that they know that getting along with the Shiites, and other Iraqi groups that they endured & struggled along with, against Sadaam's tyrannical regime to this point in time; and attempt in building a unified Iraqi nation with them is in the best interest of all parties concerned.
I think most Kurds understand that to attempt to break away from Iraq would most assuredly invite slaughter and possible civil war; as well as an excuse for an extensive increase in terror & insurgency from the surrounding region.

Posted by: RockyB. at January 6, 2006 11:39 PM

A referendum in Kirkuk next year to join Kurdistan might just save a few lives here, then again it may not. Ask a kurd here in Kirkuk what will happen to the Arabs as soon as the coalition leaves. Let me sum it up, "murder". There's a lot of resentment towards Arabs here for the last 25 years of oppression and manipulation from Saddams's regime. Whether Kirkuk joins Kurdistan or not there's likely to be some really intense fighting here when the coalition troops eventually pull out.

Posted by: E.Rodriguez at January 6, 2006 07:19 PM

The Kurds have proven themselves allies and I think we should be happy to see them get Kircuk. It is long over due for our foreign policy trade relations and especially foriegn aid to be based upon loyalty rather than whatever other PC reasons. I think the old days policy of rewarding our allies while punishment of those who are agianst US is long over due.

But then I guess in some people's eyes the fact that they are allies of the US makes them guilty by association.

Posted by: C-Low at January 6, 2006 03:12 PM

"Kurdistan Regional Government and its lackeys in Baghdad are plotting to redraw Kurdistan's unofficial but very real borders to incorporate Kirkuk."

Perhaps you should distinguish between "lackeys" and "representatives". The former term is in this context suggestive of political figures acting at the behest of, and for the benefit of, a narrow political clique in Iraqi Kurdistan. The later term would be more indicative of persons acting to achieve goals that the average Iraqi Kurd might find desirable. Given that an Iraqi Kurd working in Baghdad in an official capacity is probably in at least some danger of assassination or abduction, it seems incumbent upon you, the journalist, to state your reasons in the event that you choose to describe such persons in so contemptuous a fashion.

Posted by: J. Brenner at January 6, 2006 01:08 PM

The Kirkuk Question

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