ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Prime Minister Masrour Barzani spoke to a group of youths in Duhok earlier this month, discussing several issues, such as its oil exportation process, budget issues with Baghdad and the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region.
Barzani sat down with 41 students from nine different Kurdish universities in Duhok on September 19 to answer their questions about the pressing issues in the region. The PM touched on several issues, including PKK presence in the Kurdistan Region, budget issues with Baghdad, financial reforms, oil issue and creation of job opportunities for the youth.
The PM said that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) would welcome Kurds from other parts to reside in the Kurdistan region as guests but it would not accept any groups such as the PKK to claim territorial control over parts of the Kurdistan region.
The presence of the PKK in the Kurdistan Region, dating back to nearly four decades, has caused a lot of headache for the KRG. The tensions between the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the PKK reached a nadir last year when Peshmerga and PKK fighters clashed. The tensions have escalated since then.
“If the PKK comes to the Kurdistan Region as Kurds or someone in trouble - like all Kurds from all four parts of the [Greater] Kurdistan - they are most welcomed as guests,” PM Barzani told the students.
However, the group is not welcomed in the Region “if it considers itself as an alternative to the [KRG] authorities, attacks our people with weapon, prevents villagers from visiting their villages, prevents farmers from cultivating their fields, imposes tax on people instead of the government, sets up courts, and hurts people and gives an excuse for the Turkish army to be deployed to the Kurdistan region, if it was not for the PKK, Turkish army would not be in the Kurdistan region,” he added.
PKK is a militant armed group established in 1978 with the stated aim of fighting for the increased rights of Kurds in Turkey. Ankara considers it a terrorist organization and regularly carries out military campaigns against the group inside Turkey and across the border in the Kurdistan Region. Turkey launched air and ground operations in April in the Duhok province launching hundreds of airstrikes against the positions of the PKK and erecting military outposts inside the region.
“Where would the PKK liberate here? A liberated country does not need to be liberated by the PKK. They say that the Peshmerga must not rule on this soil and they have laid mines on roads, attacked Peshmerga with rockets and martyred an Asayish officer,” Barzani stated.
PKK says they consider all four parts of Greater Kurdistan - Kurdish areas in Turkey, Iran, Syria and Kurdistan Region - as their home and do not need anyone’s permission to stay there.
Review of oil contracts
Kurdistan Region has been marketing its crude oil independent of the federal government for years. However, it has failed to pay its civil servants on time and in full since Baghdad cut its budget share in 2014. The war with the Islamic State and the recent coronavirus pandemic has depleted the coffers of the KRG further.
These factors forced the KRG to take out loans from Turkey and a number of oil companies. The companies would pay the oil money in advance in return for a discount and a fee.
PM Barzani said they have been able to review all oil deals with companies to reduce costs.
“We have reviewed all the agreements with the oil exporting companies. The ministry of natural resources has spoken with these companies in detail on how to reduce costs and extend the age of the fields,” he said.
“We have also begun talks with those companies that buy our oil. We have been somehow successful in reducing a good amount of the discount offered to these companies. Therefore, a large amount of income will return to the [Kurdistan] Regional Government due to the changes. This is all part of the reforms we have made in this sector,” added Barzani.
Budget
After a long discussion, the Iraqi parliament was able to pass its 2021 budget bill in late March. The articles of the law made Kurdish MPs happy but things did not work as expected - Baghdad continued cutting the Kurdistan Region’s budget share.
However, Iraqi PM Mustafa Kadhimi later decided to provide 200 billion dinars ($137 million) to Erbil on a monthly basis. The KRG has received this amount for two months but Barzani says this is not their actual entitlement. “It is much more than this,” he said.
KRG owes each civil servant months of unpaid salaries. Barzani said his cabinet “will compensate all unpaid salaries if we have money.”
Barzani said they have found ways to cope with the financial crisis, including increasing the internal revenue and introducing reforms.
“We have doubled our local income in the first two to three months [of the reform]. This is not due to an increase in the source of the income but through reorganizing what we already had,” he stated.
The economic crisis has also affected the youth, with thousands of them migrating to European countries in recent years. Barzani called on the youth to love their homeland and ignore claims that the Kurdistan Region is owned by certain individuals. “The country belongs to no one alone but all.”
He said he has formed a team from his office to work with universities to encourage the youths to be more active in the society and endorse their ideas.
“I believe establishing small and medium businesses creates more jobs for our people than big businesses do, because big businesses may have products but they may not be able to employ a large number of people,” he said.
