Tabnak - As the countdown has started to completely defeat ISIS terrorist group in Iraq and Iraqi forces are gaining more and more victories against the terrorists in Mosul, recent moves by the Iraqi Kurds have caused concerns in Baghdad. In parallel with raising Kurdish flag in Kirkuk, Erbil officials are talking again of a referendum for independence.
In the latest development regarding the disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil, Iraq's parliament rejected today a decision to raise the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi flag on public buildings and institutions in Kirkuk city. According to Aljazeera, Iraqi MPs voted in favor of displaying only the Iraqi flag on Kirkuk's buildings.
Earlier in the week, the semi-autonomous Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC) voted in favor of raising the Kurdistan Regional Government's flag (KRG) alongside Iraqi national flag on public buildings in the city. However, that vote was vetoed by most Arab and Turkmen members of the KPC.
Meanwhile, as the claims by the Iraqi Kurdish officials to obtain an independent status are rising, Baghdad officials warn that such moves could complicate the situation for all Iraqis, including the Kurds themselves.
In this vein, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi said he viewed Iraq's disintegration as objectionable and noted that Kurds' potential separation they are seeking would only harm them, in an interview with the Rudaw media outlet published on Saturday.
"As you know, for a time now there has been talk that Iraq will split into three regions of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis. But that is totally objectionable. We are serious about Iraq’s territorial integrity… Separation now and in the past has done the Kurds harm because your neighbors do not accept that either," Abadi was quoted as saying by the outlet.
Russian news agency Sputnik notes that on Thursday, Hemin Hawrami, a senior assistant to Iraqi Kurdistan’s President Masoud Barzani, told that Barzani had informed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres about the referendum on gaining independence from Iraq "at the earliest time."
The following day, Turkish presidential spokesman said that Ankara opposed the initiative and reaffirmed commitment to maintaining Iraq's territorial integrity.
Talking to reporters at a press conference in Ankara, Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin revealed they had "spoken” to Kurdish officials about the issue, without indulging into specifics. "Everybody will pay the price” for such a move, said Kalin, implying the prospects of similar demands by Kurds some other parts of the region.
Kurdistan gained autonomous governance based on the 2005 constitution, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of fierce fighting.
Both governments in Iraq and Erbil engaged in political spats over regions recaptured by Kurdish Peshmerga troops from ISIS terrorists since campaigns against the group launched in October. While Kurdish politicians and MPs occasionally reiterated they were not going to cede those areas, Baghdad said it was expecting Kurdish troops to pull out after ISIS is eliminated.
