U.S. Plans for Iraq Worry Some Kurds

IRBIL, Iraq - There is growing concern among Iraq (news - web sites)'s Kurds that the United States will once again abandon them midway in their age-old aspiration to set up a federal Kurdish state.

Kurdish leaders and many others in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq are convinced that Washington promised, just before invading Iraq 10 months ago, that the Kurds would be granted autonomy under a federal system after the fall of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites). U.S. officials say no such guarantees were made.

The Kurds, who established a semiautonomous area in Irbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk provinces in northern Iraq under U.S. and British protection following the 1991 Gulf War (news - web sites), were among the strongest Iraqi supporters of the war that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"In the last 12 years, we've had a free and democratic atmosphere. It's impossible for the Kurds to accept one scintilla less than what they have enjoyed," Neschirwan Barzani, the prime minister of the Irbil, told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Irbil is controlled by the Kurdish Democratic Party, one of the two major Kurdish factions. The other faction, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, controls Sulaimaniyah. The two provinces along with Dohuk together are home to most of Iraq's Kurds, who make up 15 to 20 percent of Iraq's 25 million people.

The Kurdish goal is to formalize their existing autonomy under a federal system and even expand it to the oil-rich area around Kirkuk, historically a Kurdish city. Saddam expelled Kurds from Kirkuk and resettled the area with Arabs.

Barzani, who is nephew of KPD leader Massoud Barzani, said no political party has the right to accept anything less than federalism "because the Kurdish public and the Kurdish people will not accept it."

The Kurdish Parliament in Irbil has sent a proposal for a federal solution to the U.S.-installed Governing Council in Baghdad and to L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil administrator.

Bremer has indicated that he prefers a federal system, but one based on geographical boundaries rather than ethnic composition.

Barzani said that during meetings between U.S. officials and anti-Saddam opposition groups and Kurdish leaders before the war, "it was confirmed that the Kurds will get a lions share in the new Iraq."

"And things gradually changed. After the war, they forgot everything. ... They came out with a new idea about how to run the situation. This in itself has become a problem," he said.

Barzani said "historically, geographically" there has been an area called Kurdistan made up of areas with majority Kurdish population.

"What we say is this: The borders of the federal union should be made up of areas that are called Kurdistan," he said, reiterating a demand made often by Kurdish leaders.

The Kurdish aspirations have alarmed neighboring Turkey, Syria and Iran, which fear that granting Iraqi Kurds an ethnic enclave could incite separatist sentiments among Kurdish minorities within their own borders.

Barzani also demanded that Arabs, who were settled in Kirkuk and other Kurdish areas, should be asked to leave.

After that, these Arabs should vote in a referendum on whether or not they want to be part of the Kurdistan federation, he said.

In recent days, Kurds have been collecting petitions from citizens calling for a referendum on a federal solution.

"The petition is to put pressure on the coalition authority, the Governing Council and human rights groups to take notice of the wishes of the Kurdish people that they want to determine their own fate," said Haval Abu Bakr, a professor at Sulaymaniyah University.

"We know the Turks, the Arabs and the Americans very well," said Ferhad Pirbal, a writer and professor at Salaheddin University in Irbil. "They might do the same again and betray us, like they did in the past. Americans understand the feelings and emotions of Iraqi nationalism and can use that against us."

Kurds felt let down in 1991 after the U.S. government urged them to rise against Saddam but did nothing to help them when they were brutally crushed by the Iraqi army.

"When we came we said it's going to be one nation," and that "we will keep the status quo for now until we can establish a government with a constitution," said Lt. Col. James Bullion with 404th Cvivil Affairs Battalion in Irbil.

He said the issue of Kirkuk was yet to be resolved and the Coalition Provisional Authority will set up a property claims commission in Irbil, Kirkuk and Sulaymaniyah in the coming weeks for people who were evicted from their towns.

Bullion had advice for the Kurds who were among the people who suffered most under Saddam: "This is the best opportunity for them to achieve their goals. But they have to be realistic. If they push too hard, they may lose that opportunity," he said.

Iraqi Kurds Threaten to Force Turks Out

IRBIL, Iraq - The Kurdish government in northern Iraq (news - web sites)'s Irbil province threatened Tuesday to close down the offices of a Turkish-led peacekeeping force if Ankara did not pull it out voluntarily.

In October, the Kurdish Parliament in Irbil sent a letter to officials in Washington, London and Ankara, saying the Peace Monitoring Force must leave the Kurdish area because it is no longer needed after the ouster of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites), said Neschirwan Barzani, prime minister of the area of northern Iraq controlled by the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

Turkey sent the force to northern Iraq in the last decade to patrol a line separating rival Kurdish groups — the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The force of about 400 is mostly comprised of Iraqi Turkmen and Iraqi Assyrians, but is commanded by Turkish officers — the Kurds' biggest objection.

"We asked for a meeting to be held for this subject to be determined and for the dissolution of PMF," Barzani told The Associated Press.

The United States, Britain and Turkey have yet to respond to the request, he said.

"We have been patient, but since they have not responded to our letter, then all the possibilities will be open," he added.

"If they don't come forward to solve that problem, and we very seriously mean it, we will take other options in order to dissolve this force," he said through an interpreter.

Asked what the Kurds would do, Barzani replied there would be demonstrations and protests, "and we will close their offices."

Lt. Col. James Bullion, with the U.S. Army's 404th Civil Affairs Battalion in Irbil, said it was unlikely that the Kurds would use force to expel Turkish troops.

If they do, he said, "it will be a major, major international incident and they are not going to do that," Bullion said.

For the moment, he said, there are other priorities and the Turkish peacekeepers would leave when there is a full merger between the two main Kurdish factions in Iraqi Kurdistan.

A united Kurdish government is expected to be established in the spring, said Barzani, with himself as its prime minister. A PUK official would be his deputy.

Turkey is deeply concerned about the situation in Kurdish areas of Iraq because of repercussions in parts of Turkey where Kurds predominate.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to raise those concerns with President Bush (news - web sites) in a meeting this week at the White House. Erdogan has said his government opposes any "ethnically oriented" federation in postwar Iraq.

Turkey, a key U.S. ally in the region, fears Iraq's Kurdish population could exert substantial control over resources, such as oil pipeline transit fees, and strengthen the independence aspirations of Turkey's own Kurds. Turkish Kurds fought a 15-year insurgency seeking to establish their own state.

During a speech Monday in New York to the Council on Foreign Relations, Erdogan said Kurdish autonomy in Iraq "does not serve Turkish interests."

"Any "ethnically oriented or sectarian federation ... is not welcome by us. It is not favorable to Turkey," Erdogan said.

Necirvan Barzani.

In making this sale we have promised a lot to a lot of people. The only way we can thread this needle is to let the Iraqi parties themselves work it out among themselves and then simply bless the outcome.

To the ones who like it, we can claim credit, and to the ones who hate it, we can say "it wasn't us".

But the Kurds are not going to buy into the new constitution if it doesn't give them a fair portion of what they want, which is autonomy. Actually, autonomy is not a big deal. The big deal is independent budget authority without which autonomy is meaningless, and behind this, agreeing on how oil income is to be distributed. Does it all go to Baghdad and get shared out from there? Or will the provinces be able to claim a share of the oil in its territory?

Will the provinces be able to exercise any control over oil contracts in their area? How those decisions are handled will decide whether the Kurds can be held inside the new state. If the oil is not going to be privatized, and it is clear that it isn't, the default will be for the power over oil to reside in Baghdad. They can buy the Kurds by giving them a share at the provincial level, but that is problematic. Or they can buy them by making them a key part of the power structure in Baghdad itself.

One hammer we have, ironically, is Turkey. As a part of Iraq, we will defend the Kurds against Turkish invasion. Outside of Iraq, we have no such commitment to defend them against anyone. And Turkey has already promised to come calling.

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