Kurds demand federal Iraq without waiting for constitutional convention

[NNN0LHI]

Kurds don't need no stinking convention.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20031220/wl_mideast_afp/iraq_kurds_federalism&cid=1514&ncid=1480

BAGHDAD (AFP) - Kurdish representatives on Iraq (news - web sites)'s US-installed interim Governing Council have submitted a bill to establish a federal Iraq without waiting for a constitutional convention promised for 2005, aides said.

All five Kurdish members of the council are backing the bill, including the heads of the two main former rebel factions, Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani, said Bakhtiar Amin, assistant to Mahmud Othman, another of the bill's five proponents. snip

The bill put forward by the council's five Kurdish members forsees the expansion of Kurdish autonomy from the three northern provinces which rebel factions ruled in defiance of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) to include the oil-rich province of Tamim around Kirkuk and parts of the ethnically mixed provinces of Nineveh and Diyala.


These areas were majority Kurdish at the time of the 1957 census and have only since had their ethnic makeup changed because of the deliberate policy of "Arabization" carried out by Saddam's regime, the bill says.

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[Robbien]

1. The Kurds have political savy.

Saddam basically left them alone and they kept control of their people and the oil fields in the north. These people are not going to let Bush sell their part of the country out from under them.

[Party of the People]

2. plus they deserve this!

I can still see the news footage of their dead bodies after having been gassed by SH. :puke:

[Sorcerer3]

12. yes. So do I

Saddam is a madman. getting rid of him was a good thing.

[davidinalameda]

3. what about our good friend Turkey

won't this cause problems for them

if the Kurds in Turkey see that the Kurds in Iraq are getting a share of the rewards, won't they want more freedome from Turkey

[tlcandie]

5. Aye dwickham.... everyone forgot about Turkey saying

they will not stand for the Kurds to be empowered or have we all forgotten so soon?

Another Iran/Iraq war if this happens, especially with so many Kurds (three?) in power there.

Interestinger and interestinger it goes... round and round nobody knows!

Interestinger used intentionally :hi:

[pinto]

4. Kurds up the stakes.

They've always wanted autonomy and have survived the Baathist attempts at genocide and Turkish inroads. I think their use of the term "federal" is interesting...as in a federation of seperate "states"?

[IndianaGreen]

6. I am sure Turkey is going to look the other way and let this happen

Turks are already pissed about the way the Kurds have treated the Turkmen of Northern Iraq.

Edit: I fat-fingered "Turkmen"

[pinto]

7. you know, if our recent actions are any script...I could see us rehashing

that sure fire hit from the Brits...partition. It's a little far fetched but one scenario:

Promise the Kurds a state.
Promise Turkey "containment" of Kurds.
Promise Sunnis "protection" of a Sunni state.
Promise Shiites majority of country and whatever oil revenue we don't take.

Only problem, it has never worked that way, see:

Ireland/Britain
India/Pakistan
Israel/Palestine

yuck...

[IndianaGreen]

8. Ironic that most Iraqis have not fallen for that partition nonsense

They consider themselves Iraqis first, and are united in the desire for the US to leave.

[pinto]

9. yeah, and I don't think they will fall for it. Iraqi goals across

the board now seem clear, US out. I just think we are h*ll bent on determining the outcome, post-occupation.

[pippin]

10. they apparently delivered Sadam

and could be cutting a deal.

see: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=947123

[pinto]

11. thanks for the link to other thread, interesting, no?