Angry protesters for a second day in a row gathered in front of the US Consulate General in Erbil holding signs with slogans like “Yes, yes Kurdistan. No, no Iran.”
Hundreds of Kurds in the diaspora staged a gathering in front of the US embassy in London, calling on the Iraqi army and Iranian backed-Hashd al-Shaabi forces to pull their units out of the city of Kirkuk.
“Kirkuk is our city and we will not give it to strangers,” they chanted. “Out, out Abadi. Out, out Iran.”
“I would love to send a message to the Kurdistanis: holding the referendum reverberated around the world. Kurds own a very important result, which is the result of the referendum. Kurds determined their borders in a democratic way. Sooner or later, we will celebrate that result,” Irfan Aziz, former president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Kurdistan Student Union, told Rudaw. He was among the protesters in London.
Another Kurdish man in the London protest urged Masoud Barzani, KDP leader and president of the Kurdistan Region, to act together with Kosrat Rasul Ali, the top man of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and vice president of the Kurdistan Region.
The two must stop any “plot” to fragment the Kurdish home at this time, the man said.
A large demonstration is expected to be held on Tuesday and Wednesday in Birmingham.
Kurdish protesters in the Swedish capital Stockholm urged the international community to speak up and help stop the Iraqi army’s incursion into the Kurdistani territories, which were retaken from ISIS by the Peshmerga.
Iraqi forces and the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi took over disputed areas of Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Diyala provinces this week, including the city of Kirkuk.
After deadly clashes in Pirde (Altun Kupri), 50 km from Erbil, the US State Department released a statement expressing their concern over the violence and called on the two sides to coordinate their movements in the disputed areas and begin dialogue.
The statement stressed the status of the disputed areas according the Iraqi constitution.
“The reassertion of federal authority over disputed areas in no way changes their status – they remain disputed until their status is resolved in accordance with the Iraqi constitution,” the statement read, urging Erbil and Baghdad to coordinate on security and administration in these areas.
The Kurdistan government has welcomed the US statement and said they are prepared to cease the clashes and are open to beginning talks with the central government without any preconditions.
Baghdad has, however, detailed a number of concessions the Kurdistan government must take before it will sit down at the table.
“Holding any talks with Baghdad will surely be on the basis of conditions, namely the integrity of Iraq, the constitution, handing over border ports, airports, the country’s wealth, Peshmerga forces, Kurdish security establishments, enforcing the law in disputed areas and preventing any move which might be taken by the Kurdistan Region contrary to the constitution,” Saad Adisi, spokesperson for Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s media office, said in a news conference on Saturday.
