Barzani’s alternative is another Barzani

The pact has failed. Instead of helping Gorran to reenter the political scene, it has further distanced the party from it.

The latest meeting between the KDP and PUK politburos shows that reaching an agreement and being friends with the KDP will help the PUK to reunite. The two PUK factions can together meet with the KDP and arrive at an agreement easily, even if the PUK officials cannot face each other in a round table meeting.

The officials responsible for PUK’s splintering have forgotten that the weight of their party in governance and doing politics cannot be measured by the number of seats they have in the parliament. It is now clear that the PUK shares KDP’s position on how to normalize the political process in the Kurdistan Region.

The KDP is prepared for all the possibilities which might come up in talks about changing the three leading positions in the region. The first possibility could be replacing Kurdistan’s current parliament speaker with someone else within the Gorran party and restoring the political process to prior 12 October 2015, or changing the parliament’s leadership team in a way that can ensure withdrawing trust from the current parliament’s presidential team. In this case, the speaker’s position might not necessary be given to the PUK. It might be given to Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU).

The second possibility could be excluding the Gorran party from the government. In this case, the KDP should think about two options for the other two presidencies. The first option could be prolonging the current situations until the presidential law is amended in the parliament, determining the way the region’s president is elected. The second option could be giving the position of Prime Minister to the PUK and appointing a provisional president for the region until the next general elections are held, as mentioned in Barzani’s statement. In this case, the position of the president of the Kurdistan Region will still be retained by the KDP, and it is most likely that Nechirvan Barzani would be holding this position.

Towards a new strategic pact

In light of the statements issued following the recent KDP-PUK politburo meeting, in which neither mentions the Change Movement, nor its demands, it appears that the PUK has lost faith in the Gorran party and no longer fears it. The PUK can no longer afford to distance itself from the region’s political scene and deprive itself from national achievements due to threats from Gorran. The PUK is the legacy of Jalal Talabani’s school, a figure known as the Churchill of his days. The Gorran party’s objective was, right from the beginning, to diminish the magnitude of the PUK, putting it under peoples’ pressure and distancing it from the KDP. But the PUK regarded itself as a party for all Iraq, not only the Kurdistan Region, owing to Talabani’s position at the time.

Neutralizing the strategic treaty between the KDP and PUK was Gorran’s biggest goal, which it couldn’t realize. The Gorran party wanted to control the city of Sulaimani in a coup during the mass protests of Oct. 17, but the KDP prevented this from happening. The PUK responded smartly, too. They used the KDP forces to intimidate Gorran, but didn’t allow them to flex their muscles in Sulaimani in the name of rescuing the PUK.

Both of the PUK factions now want to reach an agreement with the KDP, an agreement that can reunite the divided PUK too, regardless of its specifics.

Gorran in shambles  

The statement issued by some Gorran officials, slamming the lack of political will to implement the treaty they have with the PUK, is meaningless. The Gorran officials were misguided twice: when they parted ways with the PUK ten years ago, and then when they signed the treaty with them. When were they right to complain about the non-implementation of their treaty with the PUK?

In the heat of signing the treaty, none of them dared to raise the issue as to why they first broke away from the PUK if it is such an ideal political party to deal with. Has the PUK abolished its strategic pact with KDP to sign a new one with us? Has the PUK pulled out from the government? Have they boycotted the parliament? Which article in our agreement with the PUK is strategic, when the PUK has done none of these? Both of the PUK factions misguided the Gorran party, which is in disarray now!