SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region—Officials from Kurdistan Region’s two major political parties have spoken of renewing an old strategic alliance they once had and creating a united platform for future talks domestically and with Baghdad, which the leader of the Socialist Party, who is a veteran Kurdish politician believes will be the beginning of an end to the gridlock currently choking the region.
Hamay Haji Mahmoud, known as Kaka Hama, the leader of the Kurdistan Socialist Party told Rudaw in an interview that if the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) can manage to settle their differences “50 percent of all the problems will be solved,”
“These two parties will then have a united stance on the rest of the issues and they have, together, a large number of MPs in parliament who will be able to easily make decisions,” Kaka Hama argued.
According to Kaka Hama, the PUK and KDP had held their own separate talks while they were engaged in five-party talks to find an end to the political deadlock and “that means the two must have reached their own deal,”
The PUK and KDP who once had a so-called strategic agreement allowing them to run a coalition government and run on a united list in parliamentary elections, are the two main parties in the Kurdistan Region and despite occasional tensions, have remained close to each other in many aspects, especially in governance.
“The PUK and KDP hold all the important joints including political, economic, military and security,” said Kaka Hama. “They also have their own police and security and therefore if they reach a deal they can later gather all other parties and make them agree too.”
Meanwhile, warned the Socialist leader, this suggestion does not mean the PUK and KDP “should share everything between themselves on a 50/50 bases as they did before,”
“They must prepare a partnership project and present it to all parties to study and decide on,” he said.
Kaka Hama suggested that the Kurds need to be prepared for the new post-ISIS era as the war against the radical group is drawing down.
