Tabnak – Indifferent to heavy domestic and international opposition, Iraqi Kurdish leaders are apparently serious in their quest for independence. Now, as the Iraqi Kurdistan region prepares for an independence referendum, multi-layered risks of such a more become more and more apparent.
According to Aljazeera, hundreds demonstrated in eastern Iraq against a planned referendum on the secession of northern Iraq's Kurdish region, which neighboring countries and Western powers fear could break up the country and stir regional ethnic and sectarian conflict.
Protestors, who gathered outside the Baquba city council on Sunday, waved banners denouncing the September 25 vote and called on local authorities to ban the polls.
The non-binding referendum will see Iraqis in areas under the control of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) - and in a handful of territories disputed between Erbil and Baghdad - vote whether to secede from Iraq.
Meanwhile, Reuters reports that a delegation from the Kurdistan Regional Government held talks with the Iraqi ruling Shi‘ite coalition in Baghdad on Saturday, two days before a planned referendum on secession from Iraq.
The Kurdish delegation met with representatives of the Shi‘ite ruling coalition in Baghdad, and with the Iraqi president, Fuad Masum, himself a Kurd, whose role is largely ceremonial.
However, as the Kurds showed no sign of a possible retreat from their referendum plan, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim warned on that Ankara’s actions in response to the controversial independence referendum would have "economic and security dimensions”.
"The steps will be taken in close cooperation with Iraq, Iran and other neighboring countries. These measures will have diplomatic, political, economic and security dimensions,” he told reporters in the central Turkish province of Kirsehir.
When asked whether a cross-border operation was among the options, Yildirim said "naturally” but "it is a question of timing as to when the security, economic and political options will be applied.” He added: "This will be determined by developing conditions.”
Nonetheless, Hoshyar Zebari, a member of the Kurdistan Region Referendum Council, has stressed that vote would not be postponed despite opposition from neighboring countries.
"The referendum does not mean the end of the world…It is a simple democratic process for the people of Kurdistan to express their will, to decide their future,” he said.
On the other hand, The Los Angeles Times writes that Western diplomats are concerned about the decision to hold voting in disputed areas that are controlled by Kurdish forces but claimed by Baghdad — notably the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. The move has raised tensions that they say ISIS and other extremists are seeking to exploit.
The paper also notes that there is little doubt about the referendum’s outcome — Iraqi Kurds overwhelmingly support independence. But some of Barzani’s rivals view the vote as a ploy to divert attention from the failings of a corrupt leadership beset by political discord and an economic crisis brought on by plummeting oil prices. Others worry that holding the vote now invites a risky conflict with allies and trading partners.
