The retaking of Kirkuk by Iraqi forces in October sent shock waves throughout Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. Protests took place in Erbil, including at the US Consulate. Kurds took to social media to lament the Iraqi victory, criticizing the country as well as the Popular Mobilization Units, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) politicians, Iran and Turkey. The reverberations were also felt in Kurdish communities elsewhere in the Middle East.

“As a Kurd, I was saddened,” Alborz Rointan, a member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (KDPI), told Al-Monitor about Kirkuk. “Iranian Kurds after the referendum took to the streets and showed their happiness.”

Kurdish groups across the Middle East support the holding of the Kurdistan independence referendum, despite ideological differences and consequences for the region following the vote. However, they disagree considerably on the responsibility for the loss of Kirkuk.

Rointan said that Iran is to blame for what happened in Kirkuk and that former Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani should remain in a leadership role in the party. On the strategy of Kurdish parties in Iran, he said it will not change after events in neighboring Iraq. “Kurds in Iran do not have an independence request now,” he noted. “But central governments have never responded to any Kurdish demands. To create a democracy and a society with universal values that respect Kurdish rights, we must ask for independence.”