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Iraqi Kurds vote in historic independence referendum 'The best day of my life': Iraqi Kurds vote in independence referendum
(about 5 hours later)
Iraqi Kurds are casting ballots in Iraq’s Kurdish region and disputed territories on whether to support independence from Baghdad, in a historic but non-binding vote that has raised regional tensions and fears of instability. Thousands of people in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq have cast votes in a referendum billed as a first step towards independence from Baghdad, defying regional demands that the ballot be abandoned and international fears that the outcome could spark violence.
The referendum will not immediately bring independence, but it would mark a definitive stance by the Kurds to break away, and Kurdish leaders say they will use a “yes” vote to press for negotiations with Iraq’s central government to win statehood. Iraq has called the vote constitutional and it is opposed by Iran, Syria and Turkey, who also have Kurdish minorities. As voting stations closed, more than 80% of registered voters had cast ballots in a poll that many felt transcended the demands of Iraq’s Kurdish north and buttressed the cause of Kurds across the region.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, on Monday threatened military intervention in response to the vote, stressing that Kurdish independence was unacceptable to his country and that this was a “matter of survival.” Leaders in Erbil had tried to confine aspirations to within the Kurdish regional government’s current boundaries in Iraq. However, Iran, Turkey and Baghdad fear the ballot could provide momentum to restive Kurdish movements and potentially destabilise borders elsewhere in the region.
He said Turkey would take also take political and economic measures against steps toward independence and suggested it could halt oil flows arriving through a pipeline from northern Iraq, depriving Iraqi Kurds of revenues. “We have the valve. The moment we shut the valve, that’s the end of it,” he said. Iraq’s parliament on Monday debated a motion to send troops into disputed areas south of Kirkuk that were contentiously included in the referendum.
Iran, which on Monday called the vote “untimely and wrong” and has since Sunday been holding a military exercise in its northwestern Kurdish region bordering Iraq. In Kirkuk, a multi-ethnic oil city 60 miles south of Erbil, Kurdish areas were brimming with voters, many wearing celebratory clothes or traditional costume. “This is better than [the Islamic festivals],” said Abdul Kareem Kakarash, 62, a blacksmith. “It is the best day of my life.”
More than 3 million people are expected to vote across the three provinces that make up the Kurdish autonomous region, as well as residents in disputed territories – areas claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurds, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk – according to the Independent High Elections and Referendum Commission, the body overseeing the vote. His relative Mala Rasul Mamish, 40, said: “I hope that the west will see this as a historic day, and not just the project of one political party. It is much more than that. So much of our blood has been spilt for being Kurds. The Iraqi government has done to us things that even infidels wouldn’t do.”
Lines began forming early in the day at polling stations across Erbil, the Kurdish regional capital. The ballot is widely expected to deliver an overwhelming yes for independence – a boost for the de facto Kurdish president, Massoud Barzani, who had invested much of his political capital as leader in putting Iraq’s Kurds on a pathway to independence.
“Today we came here to vote in the referendum for the independence of Kurdistan,” said Tahsin Karim, one of the first people to vote in his neighbourhood. “We hope that we can achieve independence.” Barzani had repeatedly ignored calls from neighbouring countries and from the US, Britain, the EU, UN and Arab League that he abandon the vote in favour of more talks with Baghdad.
The Kurdish region’s president, Masoud Barzani, also voted early on Monday morning at a polling station packed with journalists and cameras. At a press conference in Erbil on the eve of the referendum, Barzani said he believed the vote would be peaceful, though he acknowledged that the path to independence would be “risky”. “We are ready to pay any price for our independence,” he said. Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said his country could cut a pipeline that allows the Iraqi Kurds to export oil to the outside world – much of it from Kirkuk fields – and generates significant revenue for the KRG. Iran banned flights to Erbil and shut its airspace to flights to and from the city’s airport.
The US, a key ally of Iraq’s Kurds, has warned the vote is likely to destabilise the region amid the fight with Islamic State. The Iraqi central government has demanded on Sunday that all airports and borders crossings in the Kurdish region be handed back to federal government control. Though the result is non-binding, Iraq’s central government views the ballot as a potential trigger for disintegration of the fragile state, which has been battered by 14 years of war and instability – the last three of which have been consumed by battling Islamic State.
Barzani’s calculation was that the fight with the terror group gave him leverage that he would not otherwise have had. However, Baghdad seems less inclined than ever before to offer concessions in the event of a result that moves the semi-autonomous north further from its orbit and adds new complications to already stalled deals on oil and revenue sharing.
Kirkuk, contested for centuries between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, looms as a flashpoint in coming months, with Shia militias loyal to Iran and Baghdad staged just to the south of the city.
“They’re only one kilometre away,” said a peshmerga soldier at the last checkpoint to the south of the city. “We won’t let them get here.” A driver for the peshmerga was killed and a trooper wounded by gunfire in the town of Tuz Khurmatu just after noon on Monday, after a brief standoff with Shia forces, said Major Kamal Abdullah, the head of Kurdish security forces in the town.
In the city itself, Hasiba Abdullah, 51, who supervised a polling station in a Kurdish neighbourhood, said of the vote: “It’s a dream come true for everyone. We want the Kurdish flag to rise over all our communities here. They will all be included. We are ready to set aside all disputes and take our east in the global community. We want to see our flag at the United Nations.”
Across Kirkuk, in an Arab suburb, Abu Ahmed, 61, an oil worker who did not vote, said: “Some people are not going to vote. There is more interest for the Kurds to vote. It’s less likely in the Turkmen and Arab areas.”
In a nearby polling station, Amid Najmedin said around 10% of registered voters had turned up by noon. “Arabs are not coming to vote,” he said. “The Iraqi government has been threatening people. Because of their pressure, others do not feel comfortable to participate.”
The US, a key ally of Iraq’s Kurds, has warned the vote is likely to destabilise the region. On Sunday the Iraqi central government demanded on Sunday that all airports and borders crossings in the Kurdish region be handed back to federal government control.
In a televised address from Baghdad on Sunday night, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said: “The referendum is unconstitutional. It threatens Iraq, peaceful coexistence among Iraqis and is a danger to the region.”In a televised address from Baghdad on Sunday night, the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, said: “The referendum is unconstitutional. It threatens Iraq, peaceful coexistence among Iraqis and is a danger to the region.”
He added: “We will take measures to safeguard the nation’s unity and protect all Iraqis.”He added: “We will take measures to safeguard the nation’s unity and protect all Iraqis.”
Initial results from the poll are expected on Tuesday, with the official results to be announced later in the week. Initial results from the poll are expected on Tuesday, and the official results will be announced later in the week.
At his press conference, Barzani also said that while the referendum would be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region’s “partnership” with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad was over. Additional reporting: Mohammed Rasool.
He detailed abuses inflicted on Iraq’s Kurds by Iraqi forces, including killings at the hands of Saddam Hussein’s army that left more than 50,000 Kurds dead.
Iraqi Kurds have long dreamed of independence – something the Kurdish people were denied when colonial powers drew the map of the Middle East after the first world war. The Kurds form a sizable minority in Turkey, Iran, Syria, and Iraq. In Iraq, they have long been at odds with the Baghdad government over the sharing of oil revenues and the fate of disputed territories such as Kirkuk.
The Kurds have been a close American ally for decades, and the first US airstrikes in the campaign against Isis were launched to protect Erbil. Kurdish forces later regrouped and played a major role in driving the extremists from much of northern Iraq, including Mosul, the country’s second-largest city.
But the US has long been opposed to Kurdish moves toward independence, fearing it could lead to the breakup of Iraq and bring even more instability to an already volatile Middle East.