BAGHDAD, Iraq – Since the 2003 US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, Iraq has changed flags six times. The current one was adopted in 2008 after consensus by all political parties – except the Kurds. Another change to the flag is unlikely to happen anytime soon, officials say.
“The current flag is a temporary one and was supposed to be changed after a year,” said Moayad Tayib, a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament.
“A new flag was supposed to be designed that same year, but due to disagreements in the Iraqi parliament the proposal for a new Iraqi flag has remained dormant in the parliament for the past few years,” he complained.
He said that a parliament committee has samples of six flags that were chosen from a design competition.
“Among the six samples, the one that was flown during former Iraqi prime minister Abdul Karim Qasim (1958-1963) is the most agreed on. However, now except for the Kurds and a few personalities, all the Arab parties agree on keeping the current one.” Tayib added.
In 2008, Iraqi lawmakers agreed to a modified version of the national flag, removing three stars symbolizing the Baathist ideals of freedom, unity and socialism and changing a Koranic verse written in Saddam’s handwriting to another script.
Kurdish politicians in Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north still object to the flag. They demand that minorities like themselves must be represented in a new flag.
The current flag was adopted after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil refused to fly the Saddam-era flag. Kurdistan Region President Massoud Barzani said following Saddam’s fall that the Kurds would not recognize the old national flag because, “Under that Iraqi flag tens of thousands of Kurds were killed.”
Batool Faruq, a member of the Iraqi parliament’s Media and Culture Committee, which chose the six flags from 50 entries submitted during the 2008 design competition, said: “In the six examples of the new flag the minorities are represented. In one of the examples there is a clear indication of the Kurdistan Region.”
“The reason for the slow pace in working on the flag proposal is because the parliament wants to secure the consensus of all the parties to avoid the flag being rejected by one group, like the current one. I do not believe the current parliament will pass the flag proposal.” Faruq told Rudaw.
