Family rule taints Kurdistan's rise
A haze hangs low over the city of Erbil. Automotive exhaust and dry sand envelop the area, forming an opaque mixture that sunshine struggles to penetrate. The capital of northern Iraq's Kurdistan Autonomous Region, Erbil operates as a de facto independent state, with its own legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Its soldiers wear their uniforms with pride, sporting a tricolor symbol of their country sewn on to them. Meanwhile, Erbil has total control of its external and internal regional borders, just as any sovereign state would.
As a result, Erbil is separate from Iraq, and from that country's contentious and often deadly politics in Baghdad. "Separation is a necessary step, as our representatives have only 90 seats in Iraq's parliament [out of 700 plus]. Thus we have absolutely no voice in what is going on," said Abdullah, who owns a travel agency in downtown Erbil. "They often say we will give you money for this and this, but we want you to do this and that," he added. "We, the Kurds, find this unacceptable, as so many people have died so things will not be the same as before anymore."
The sentiment Abdullah expresses prevails among Kurds who are now, for the first time in history, living in a state they can call their own. As the newest petro-state, Kurdistan has enjoyed an unprecedented level of political and economic stability since the end of the first Gulf War in 1991. And for the first time, the Iraqi Kurds' economic fortunes are on an upward trend, especially in comparison with their co-patriots in neighboring countries, as a sea of oil revenue has lifted most economic boats.
Yet not all is well in Kurdistan, due in part to the dominant presence of one ruling family. Descended from a political dynasty that has built a power base over centuries of fighting, regional president Massoud Barzani has blossomed into an authoritarian ruler not unlike many whose regimes are now crumbling from the internal pressures of the Arab Spring.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-04-170613.html
