Erbil Remedy
SERCHUK, VANCE
Erbil Remedy Federalism is not a panacea for Kurdistan. BY VANCE SERCHUK ON CHRISTMAS DAY in Erbil— the semi-official capital of the semi-official entity known as Iraqi Kurdistan—over 100...
...Key governmental functions likewise remain more closely associated with the parties than with the "state...
...Whereas post-Saddam Iraq is often described in terms of a power vacuum, the reality of Iraqi Kurdistan is, if anything, that the parties are too muscular and entrenched, crowding out independent civil society...
...The problem of cli-entitis is rife in CPA North," complains a U.S...
...Agree to whatever Baghdad wants, but do not prepare the population in any way for a compromise...
...who ran "CPA North," responsible for Iraqi Kurdistan, for nine months last year...
...On the former question, the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) initially embraced a vision for a federal Iraq divided into the 18 traditional governorates...
...Naab, for his part, proudly acknowledges putting the Kurdish flag on his business card as a symbol of solidarity...
...These maneuverings on the referendum fit into a broader pattern of assertiveness by the KDP and PUK, which have calculated that the United States, in its mad dash to return sovereignty to Iraqis by summer and its preoccupation with the violence in the Sunni Triangle, has limited enthusiasm for meddling in an otherwise stable north...
...We need hospitals...
...unanimously rejected this approach, pressing instead for "ethnic" federalism, with a single, unified Kurdish government distinct from "Arab" Iraq...
...But it's not—and as many progressive Kurdish leaders acknowledge, politics in the north is not nearly as democratic or liberal as commonly portrayed...
...The party leaders in turn recognize that independence is not practicable right now, given the opposition of the United States, neighboring countries, and other Iraqis...
...Also encouragingly, the moderate Islamist party—the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU)—has focused its criticism of the KDP and PUK on their administrative failings...
...KDP prime minister Nechirvan Barzani explains: "From 1991 to 2003...
...While gov-ernorate-based federalism would work to break the parties' hold on the region, ethnic federalism is likely to perpetuate their hegemony...
...Hadi Ali, deputy secretary general of the KIU, explains: "Both the PUK and KDP are revolutionary parties...
...such a vote would grasp the nettle of two contentious questions: the terms on which the region, which has been de facto independent since 1991, should be reintegrated with the rest of the country, if at all...
...These are the real issues...
...I heard no gunfire during my two-week visit...
...Then, when push comes to shove, say that the people will not accept such a compromise...
...In the last year, the two Kurdish regional governments have begun efforts to merge their administrations...
...Thus, each of the two Kurdish "governments" is first and foremost an appendage of its host party...
...The Kurds participated in the coalition against Saddam Hussein...
...An improbably huge Kurdish flag was draped across the rear of the stage—three stripes of red, white, and green, with a golden sun at the center...
...We need jobs for our kids...
...No humvees patrolled the roads after dark...
...Even as they sit on the Interim Governing Council, however, Kurdish leaders are sufficiently savvy to realize that the threat of a freely organized referendum—which would almost certainly give democratic imprimatur to the widespread Kurdish desire for independence—gives them leverage in Baghdad...
...Thus, the KDP and PUK have refrained from adopting a formal position on the referendum, while warning, off the record, that "we will have no choice but to support the referendum if the Americans do not give us what we need," in the words of a KDP minister...
...The expectations for [the parties] are today very much greater," agrees Michael Howard, a reporter with the Guardian based in northern Iraq...
...For the majority of delegates assembled in Erbil, however, this too was insufficient...
...Indeed, it is easy to romanticize the situation in Iraqi Kurdistan, especially when compared with the rest of the region...
...Nevertheless, as far too many visitors to Iraqi Kurdistan fail to grasp, what is good for the Barza-nis and Talabanis is not necessarily what is good for the Kurds...
...That said, some Kurdish leaders clearly do recognize the stakes at hand...
...We need roads...
...the Iraqi army would sometimes advance...
...BY VANCE SERCHUK ON CHRISTMAS DAY in Erbil— the semi-official capital of the semi-official entity known as Iraqi Kurdistan—over 100 delegates from across northern iraq gathered in a meeting hall that resembled nothing so much as an inner city high school auditorium, complete with rows of battered faux-leather chairs and dim fluorescent lighting...
...Now, Saddam is gone, and the situation is changing...
...We do not want life in Iraq...
...We are Kurds...
...Indeed, the future of their region now depends, for the first time in recent history, less on the machinations of their neighbors or the inclinations of the Bush administration (both of whom the Kurds have deftly thwarted in the past six months) than on the choices they make and the priorities they set for themselves...
...We do not see ourselves as Iraqis...
...The KDP and PUK...
...and where the boundaries of Iraqi Kurdistan, which many Kurds insist must include territory outside their present control— most notably, Kirkuk—should be established...
...they saw the referendum as a means to pull even further from Baghdad's orbit...
...The first speaker to the dais in Erbil took up the theme: "The aim of the referendum is independence...
...We need schools...
...As a people, we have a right to self-determination, but we are condemned to terrible geopolitics," explains Barham Salih, prime minister of PUK Kurdistan...
...a turbaned cleric...
...The assembly was a cross-section of Iraqi society: a bespectacled professor of law from Sulaimaniya in a prim three-piece suit...
...Without their support, a referendum is unlikely to get much traction...
...In addition to playing a leading role in derailing the Turkish troop deployment in November, the Kurds now appear to have strong-armed Washington into accepting federal autonomy at least through the transitional period...
...At the Ibrahim Khalil border crossing with Turkey, a large sign informs the outgoing traveler that he is departing neither Iraq nor even Iraqi Kurdistan, but the territory of the KDP...
...You have this incredibly organized operation in the Kurds," says one former CPA official...
...They had the responsibility to defend the people...
...Whether acting independently or through the state apparatus, the parties also have disproportionate influence across the rest of Kurdish society, from education to business to mass media...
...Uniformed police officers directed traffic, while at the popular "Madonal" restaurant—famous for its imitation golden arches as well as the pro-American sentiments of its owner ("PUK-USA 2003" reads one poster taped to the door)—university students in blue jeans, young couples with children, and businessmen in ill-fitting suits were queuing up for "Big Macks," french fries, and pizza...
...Dick Naab (ret...
...The hope, of course, is that the continued American military presence in Iraq—coupled with the capture of Saddam Hussein—will provide a sense of security that spurs internal reforms, which both parties insist are right around the corner...
...Far from being the region's perpetual losers, the Kurds have proven themselves in the last year to be among the most agile political operators in the new Iraq...
...A government or civil servant was not in a position to do much...
...Of course, that the KDP and PUK have such zealous advocates within the CPA has emboldened them in their negotiations over the future of Iraq...
...Power in Kurdistan devolves principally from the KDP and PUK politburos to their respective patronage networks...
...a Yezidi doctor from sinjar...
...We want life in Kurdistan...
...I do not like to see my people part of a never-ending political turmoil that would basically mitigate corruption and autocracy like the rest of the Arab world," insists Prime Minister Salih...
...While counterinsurgency operations continued unabated to the south, the U.S...
...Still, the strategy of the KDP and PUK in their negotiations with Baghdad suggests that the parties, having both inculcated and profited from fierce Kurdish nationalism, may remain hostage to this dogma well after it becomes counterproductive...
...Federalism cannot fundamentally resolve the Kurdish question," Sherko Bekas, a Kurdish poet, publisher, and principal organizer of the referendum movement, lectured me the week before in his plush Sulaimaniya office...
...It's the source of their legitimacy—their bread and butter...
...In the eyes of some, these are just deserts for a people, who—having been gassed by Saddam Hussein and harried by Islamic terrorists affiliated with al Qaeda—can now assume their rightful place as America's natural allies in the post-9/11 world...
...even a lone, octogenarian Arab who had driven up from Kirkuk...
...representatives of the Turkmen and Chaldean parties from Erbil and Dohuk, respectively...
...He traveled independently through northern Iraq in December 2003...
...We have two options: Either we commit to this dream, or we do something tangible and seek a federal, democratic Iraq...
...Their stated purpose in coming together...
...Of these, 3 would partition the territory now under Kurdish administration...
...Life in Kurdistan, however, is politically dominated by two parties —the Kurdistan Democratic party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—which fought a civil war and partitioned the territory between them in the 1990s...
...military footprint was barely perceptible in the territory under Kurdish control...
...Who would be responsible for defending Kurdistan...
...I arrived there on December 19, 2003—exactly nine months after the launch of coalition military operations to remove Saddam Hussein, and six days after the deposed dictator was pulled from his spider hole...
...Furthermore, the competition between the KDP and PUK is essentially a battle for power between personalities...
...Although dramatically more successful than the Palestinians in this endeavor—having learned over the past decade to respect something of a free press as well as the values of political pluralism and compromise—Iraqi Kurdistan has gone 12 years since its first and only parliamentary election...
...In essence, the KDP and PUK must come to grips with the peculiar irony that their pursuit of power—so long justified, even necessitated, in the name of defending Iraqi Kurdistan—may now pose the greatest threat to its prosperity and development...
...official in Baghdad...
...Internal checkpoints are as likely to fly the banner of the relevant party as they are the Kurdish flag, while the peshmerga militiamen who wave cars along wear armbands restating that affiliation...
...To advocate a referendum on the political status of Iraqi Kurdistan...
...They helped liberate the country," insists Col...
...It's like southern Italy up there...
...The KDP is largely the fiefdom of its leader, Massoud Barzani, and his tribe...
...Granted, if fast food were the primary metric for civil society, Iraqi Kurdistan could qualify for membership in the European Union...
...The Kurds have adopted Yasser Arafat's post-Oslo strategy," explains one CPA official...
...But they have not been as successful in the cities as they were up in the mountains...
...They can now no longer hide behind Saddam's presence to excuse failings of transparency and democracy...
...To no small extent, this is a function of the KDP and PUK's stormy transitions from Marxist-Leninist guerrilla resistance, geared toward national liberation, to the prosaic business of governance...
...Instead, on a recent evening in Sulaimaniya, storefronts were brightly lit and bustling with customers...
...Kurdish politicians Vance Serchuk is a researcher at the American Enterprise Institute...
...the PUK, to a lesser degree, of Jalal Talabani and his family...
...What both the PUK and KDP have to do is withdraw from every aspect of life and begin to behave like normal political parties...
Vol. 9 • January 2004 • No. 18
