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Last week your humble columnist sang the praises of Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi. The ink in his column hardly had the chance to dry, when Mr. Abadi gave an interview with Rudaw in which, on several issues, he sounded remarkably like past Iraqi Prime Ministers. Perhaps your humble columnist will never be disappointed in his ability to be disappointed.
First, Mr. Abadi condemned the Kirkuk provincial council’s raising of the Kurdistani flag there. He said that Kirkuk is for all the people of Kirkuk with all its communities. There are Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and others in Kirkuk who must live together….Kirkuk is now legally part of Iraq. It is not part of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq’s laws apply there. According to the law, it is not in the authority of the provincial council to decide on a flag. The provinces have the national federal flag of Iraq.
Always eager to help out, President Erdogan in neighboring Turkey also chimed in, warning that: “Kirkuk is not a Kurdish city alone but a Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab city…If the flag is not lowered, a heavy price will be paid.”
The hypocrisy here seems a bit too much to swallow. The Kirkuk provincial council – the elected government of Kirkuk – did not lower the Iraqi flag, but rather simply raised the Kurdistani flag alongside of it. If Kurds in Iraq as well as Turkey can live under the Iraqi and Turkish flags, why can’t Turkmen and Arabs bear the Kurdistani flag? When Kurds wish to run their own affairs independently of Baghdad and Istanbul, they are told that “we are all brothers” and “this is unnecessary.” But if the prospect of Arabs or Turkmen living under Kurdish-controlled governments arises, this cannot be tolerated by the very same leaders. Instead they shriek that “Kirkuk is not only Kurdish!” as if the Kurds did not know this and could not possibly be trusted to run multi-ethnic areas. So far, the Kurds seem to have run multi-ethnic areas much more effectively and inclusively than any Iraqi or Turkish regimes, and many Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk (those not acting at Baghdad and Ankara’s behest, for instance) actually appear fine with the raising of the Kurdistani flag.
Your humble columnist is not sure which Iraqi law Prime Minister Abadi refers to when he claims this is illegal. If the Kirkuk provincial council wishes to fly the Kurdistani flag, a sports team’s flag or McDonald’s flag alongside the Iraqi flag, they probably have good legal standing to do so. What seems less legal is the Iraqi government’s failure to implement Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which stipulated that by December 2007 a referendum should be held in Kirkuk and other “disputed territories” to determine if they should remain governorates under Baghdad or join the Kurdistan Region. Until that happens, and in light of the Iraqi army’s 2014 abandonment of Kirkuk to the Islamic State (luckily the Kurdistani Peshmerga moved in instead), the Kirkuk council’s vote to fly Kurdistan’s flag next to the Iraqi one seems quite legitimate – a reminder of Article 140, if you will.
If Mr. Abadi’s Maliki-esque comments had been limited to the flag issue, your humble columnist would not have been disappointed. He is, after all, the Prime Minister of Iraq. On the oil issue, however, Mr. Abadi told Rudaw that “The oil must also be under the federal government according to the article 111 and 112 of the constitution and I believe we can work to resolve this too.” What a remarkably conciliatory position for Mr. Abadi to take! Interpreting the Constitution just like his predecessor!
In fact, Article 111 only states that “Oil and gas are owned by all the people of Iraq in all the regions and governorates.” Mr. Abadi, just like Mr. Maliki before him, apparently interprets this as meaning that only Baghdad controls the oil, while authorities in Erbil insist it simply means the revenues from all the oil and gas in the country must be shared equally amongst all Iraqis. As for Article 112 of the Constitution, the article begins with “The federal government, with the producing governorates and regional governments, shall undertake the management of oil and gas extracted from present fields…”
No reasonable person could possibly interpret this to mean that Baghdad alone controls the oil. “Present fields” also refers to fields under exploitation in 2005 (when the Constitution was ratified), leaving future fields (such as were subsequently discovered in Kurdistan) under the control of governorates and regions (especially in light of Article 115 of the Constitution, which gives primacy to the governorates and regions in cases of ambiguity) – although the revenues of these should go to all Iraqis. Yet because the Kurdistan Regional Government insisted on its right to sign its own oil contracts for these new fields, Mr. Maliki’s government illegally cut Kurdistan from the Iraqi budget – a pressure tactic which Mr. Abadi now seems willing to continue.
To top everything off, Mr. Abadi then went on to warn the Kurds that although independence is their right or dream, everyone is against it so they should forget about it. Instead, he promised that “Kurds will get the same treatment as all other Iraqis and without discrimination. All Iraqis must be treated equally and as a first class citizen.” This is precisely the language long used in Turkey, in Ba’athist Syria, in Iran and even in Ba’athist Iraq: Kurds have equal rights like everyone else -- the right to be assimilated, to follow orders from their central government and to serve the state.
If this is Mr. Abadi’s new discourse before the dust of war with ISIS even settles, then leaders in Erbil had best hold their referendum on independence sooner rather than later. Although secession involves great risks, so does remaining in Iraq.
First, Mr. Abadi condemned the Kirkuk provincial council’s raising of the Kurdistani flag there. He said that Kirkuk is for all the people of Kirkuk with all its communities. There are Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, Christians and others in Kirkuk who must live together….Kirkuk is now legally part of Iraq. It is not part of the Kurdistan Region and Iraq’s laws apply there. According to the law, it is not in the authority of the provincial council to decide on a flag. The provinces have the national federal flag of Iraq.
Always eager to help out, President Erdogan in neighboring Turkey also chimed in, warning that: “Kirkuk is not a Kurdish city alone but a Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab city…If the flag is not lowered, a heavy price will be paid.”
The hypocrisy here seems a bit too much to swallow. The Kirkuk provincial council – the elected government of Kirkuk – did not lower the Iraqi flag, but rather simply raised the Kurdistani flag alongside of it. If Kurds in Iraq as well as Turkey can live under the Iraqi and Turkish flags, why can’t Turkmen and Arabs bear the Kurdistani flag? When Kurds wish to run their own affairs independently of Baghdad and Istanbul, they are told that “we are all brothers” and “this is unnecessary.” But if the prospect of Arabs or Turkmen living under Kurdish-controlled governments arises, this cannot be tolerated by the very same leaders. Instead they shriek that “Kirkuk is not only Kurdish!” as if the Kurds did not know this and could not possibly be trusted to run multi-ethnic areas. So far, the Kurds seem to have run multi-ethnic areas much more effectively and inclusively than any Iraqi or Turkish regimes, and many Arabs and Turkmen in Kirkuk (those not acting at Baghdad and Ankara’s behest, for instance) actually appear fine with the raising of the Kurdistani flag.
Your humble columnist is not sure which Iraqi law Prime Minister Abadi refers to when he claims this is illegal. If the Kirkuk provincial council wishes to fly the Kurdistani flag, a sports team’s flag or McDonald’s flag alongside the Iraqi flag, they probably have good legal standing to do so. What seems less legal is the Iraqi government’s failure to implement Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which stipulated that by December 2007 a referendum should be held in Kirkuk and other “disputed territories” to determine if they should remain governorates under Baghdad or join the Kurdistan Region. Until that happens, and in light of the Iraqi army’s 2014 abandonment of Kirkuk to the Islamic State (luckily the Kurdistani Peshmerga moved in instead), the Kirkuk council’s vote to fly Kurdistan’s flag next to the Iraqi one seems quite legitimate – a reminder of Article 140, if you will.
If Mr. Abadi’s Maliki-esque comments had been limited to the flag issue, your humble columnist would not have been disappointed. He is, after all, the Prime Minister of Iraq. On the oil issue, however, Mr. Abadi told Rudaw that “The oil must also be under the federal government according to the article 111 and 112 of the constitution and I believe we can work to resolve this too.” What a remarkably conciliatory position for Mr. Abadi to take! Interpreting the Constitution just like his predecessor!
In fact, Article 111 only states that “Oil and gas are owned by all the people of Iraq in all the regions and governorates.” Mr. Abadi, just like Mr. Maliki before him, apparently interprets this as meaning that only Baghdad controls the oil, while authorities in Erbil insist it simply means the revenues from all the oil and gas in the country must be shared equally amongst all Iraqis. As for Article 112 of the Constitution, the article begins with “The federal government, with the producing governorates and regional governments, shall undertake the management of oil and gas extracted from present fields…”
No reasonable person could possibly interpret this to mean that Baghdad alone controls the oil. “Present fields” also refers to fields under exploitation in 2005 (when the Constitution was ratified), leaving future fields (such as were subsequently discovered in Kurdistan) under the control of governorates and regions (especially in light of Article 115 of the Constitution, which gives primacy to the governorates and regions in cases of ambiguity) – although the revenues of these should go to all Iraqis. Yet because the Kurdistan Regional Government insisted on its right to sign its own oil contracts for these new fields, Mr. Maliki’s government illegally cut Kurdistan from the Iraqi budget – a pressure tactic which Mr. Abadi now seems willing to continue.
To top everything off, Mr. Abadi then went on to warn the Kurds that although independence is their right or dream, everyone is against it so they should forget about it. Instead, he promised that “Kurds will get the same treatment as all other Iraqis and without discrimination. All Iraqis must be treated equally and as a first class citizen.” This is precisely the language long used in Turkey, in Ba’athist Syria, in Iran and even in Ba’athist Iraq: Kurds have equal rights like everyone else -- the right to be assimilated, to follow orders from their central government and to serve the state.
If this is Mr. Abadi’s new discourse before the dust of war with ISIS even settles, then leaders in Erbil had best hold their referendum on independence sooner rather than later. Although secession involves great risks, so does remaining in Iraq.
David Romano has been a Rudaw columnist since 2010. He holds the Thomas G. Strong Professor of Middle East Politics at Missouri State University and is the author of numerous publications on the Kurds and the Middle East.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
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