Iraqi Kurdistan faces many obstacles to independence referendum
Amid a strong regional disagreement, Iraqi Kurdistan is insisting on holding a referendum on independence in the fall.
BAGHDAD — Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced May 24 that it had formally informed the United Nations Security Council of its intention to hold a referendum on the independence of Kurdistan through the UN special representative to Iraq, Jan Kubis.
The KRG is working on three levels to have this referendum held by the end of this year and make the Kurdish parties attain their goal. While the first level consists of solving the internal crises plaguing the various Kurdish parties, the second one consists of starting negotiations with Baghdad to secure “a smooth and peaceful independence.” The third level consists of reassuring the regional powers that independence will by no means damage the interconnected relations in the region.
On April 13, the KRG had announced that the referendum will be held in the fall and revealed the formation of delegations of the two main parties in Kurdistan, namely the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), to negotiate the matter with Baghdad, Iran and Turkey.
The domestic crisis in the Kurdistan Region started in 2015 with the end of President Massoud Barzani's term, the disruption of the Kurdish parliament and the expulsion from Erbil of Yousif Mohammed, the speaker of the Kurdistan parliament and a leader in the Kurdish Movement for Change.
