There is renewed talk about the future status of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces ranging from uniting the two predominant Peshmerga units in Kurdistan to broadly unifying the group with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF).
On November 12, during an officer's graduation ceremony in Zakho, the President of the Kurdistan Region Nechirvan Barzani called for a Peshmerga "that is united and has a national thinking as well as being above all political, partisan, ethnic, religious and sectarian purposes."
"It should not be the force of [political] parties and groups," he said. "It should stay away from internal disagreements and rivalry. Kurdistan's Peshmerga forces should never be for political intentions and determination of political issues."
This is the latest instance of calls and plans to unify the Peshmerga which are largely, with the exception of forces under the command of the Ministry of Peshmerga, loyal to the leading parties in the Kurdistan Region – the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which controls the 70 Unit, and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which controls the 80 Unit.
Both units are roughly equal in the number of Peshmerga forces they have under their respective commands.
There has also been renewed talk in Iraq about unifying the Peshmerga and the ISF.
In mid-October, during a meeting with a delegation from the Ministry of Peshmerga, Iraqi Defense Minister Najah al-Shammari highlighted the need for unity and coordination between the Peshmerga and the ISF against the common enemy embodied by the Islamic State (ISIS).
Both sides, in a move that was hailed as "historic" at the time, previously coordinated their actions against ISIS in Mosul in October 2016.
The following October, however, the ISF and the Iraqi state-sanctioned Shiite-majority Popular Mobilization Forces, known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic seized Kirkuk from the Peshmerga, leading to fighting between the two sides, the lowest point in post-2003 relations between Baghdad and Erbil.
To make matters worse, ISIS was able to exploit security gaps that consequently emerged between the Peshmerga and ISF. Close coordination between the two sides is, therefore, essential for preventing ISIS from continuously exploiting these gaps.
The Kurdistan Region's autonomy is legal and recognized under the Iraqi Constitution.
Article 121 Section 5 of the constitution also states, in regard to federal regions, that: "The regional government shall be responsible for all the administrative requirements of the region, particularly the establishment and organization of the internal security forces for the region such as police, security forces, and guards of the region."
This clearly applies to the Kurdistan Region's Peshmerga and Asayish security forces.
This month, Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul Mahdi said the constitution needs to be amended.
The Kurdistan Region is wary of any amendments being made to the constitution, which is one of the demands of the Iraqi protests that began in October. This is because of the Kurds’ fear that certain amendments could potentially limit their constitutionally-enshrined autonomy.
There is speculation that Baghdad wants to ban Kurdistan from operating international border crossings and remove the constitution's unimplemented Article 140, which was supposed to resolve Kirkuk's disputed status between Baghdad and Erbil 12 years ago.
President Barzani has insisted that "the main problem is not the constitution, but it is the failure to implement the constitution."
Mahdi also insisted that all the armed forces in Iraq should be under the control of Baghdad, conflating the Peshmerga and PMF in the process.
In July, former Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi called for the Peshmerga to be integrated into the ISF alongside the PMF. The Peshmerga criticized his comparison by stressing the "huge difference" between the two.
Deputy Minister of Peshmerga Serbast Lezgin also pointed out that the "Peshmerga forces already see themselves as part of the Iraqi defense system."
Nevertheless, since Kurdistan attained its autonomy following the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the status of the Peshmerga has intermittently been brought into question.
In 2003, the Administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority of Iraq Paul Bremer wanted to convince Shiite militias in Iraq to disband. They refused to do so unless the Peshmerga also disbanded. Bremer asked KDP leader Masoud Barzani to do so.
Barzani staunchly refused to even discuss such a possibility and the matter was dropped.
Later, in 2012, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted that the Peshmerga must be placed under complete federal control. He also said the ISF had the right to enter any part of the autonomous region it desired.
Both sides engaged in a standoff that same year but ultimately Kurdistan refused to relinquish control over the Peshmerga.
After Kurdistan's September 2017 independence referendum Maliki's successor Haider al-Abadi seemingly sought to dismantle Kurdish autonomy altogether.
In April 2018, Abadi even campaigned in Kurdistan where he tried to convey that "the Kurdistan Region and its cities are like a city in Basra, Najaf, and Karbala." In other words, fully under federal control.
Few, if any, Kurds favour such an arrangement.
If the Iraqi Constitution is amended in the near future in disregard of Kurdistan's objections, history indicates that the region will not willingly sacrifice any of its hard-won autonomy or control over its revered Peshmerga.
