Iraqi Kurds plan independence referendum on Sept. 25

[Böri]

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday announced it would hold a referendum on independence, in a move the central government in Baghdad is likely to oppose strongly.

"I am pleased to announce that the date for the independence referendum has been set for Monday, Sept. 25, 2017," Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Twitter.

Barzani's assistant Hemin Hawrami tweeted that voting would take place in the disputed region of Kirkuk and three other areas also claimed by the central government; Makhmour in the north, Sinjar in the northwest and Khanaqin in the east.

The president of Iraq's ruling Shi'ite coalition told Reuters in April it would oppose a Kurdish referendum. Ammar al-Hakim especially warned the Kurds against any move to annex oil-rich Kirkuk.

The referendum date was set after a meeting of Kurdish political parties chaired by Barzani, who heads the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Hawrami said the question put to voters would be "do you want an independent Kurdistan?"

A senior Kurdish official, Hoshiyar Zebari, told Reuters in April the expected "yes" vote would strengthen the Kurds' hand in talks on self-determination with Baghdad and would not mean automatically declaring independence.

The Kurds are playing a major role in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State (IS), the ultra-hardline Sunni Islamist group that overran about a third of Iraq three years ago and also controls parts of Syria.

IS fighters have been squeezed into a small area of Mosul, their de-facto capital in Iraq, as a push to retake the city closes in.

FEAR OF SEPARATISM

Iraq's majority Shi'ite Arab community mainly live in the south while the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs inhabit different areas of the north. The center around Baghdad is mixed.

The idea of Iraqi Kurdish independence has been historically opposed by Iraq and neighboring Iran, Turkey and Syria, as they fear separatism spreading to their own Kurdish populations.

Kurdish officials will visiting Baghdad and neighboring states to discuss the referendum plan, Erbil-based TV Rudaw said, adding that elections for the Kurdish regional parliament are planned for Nov. 6.

Iraq has been led by Shi'ites since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

The Kurds have their own armed force, the Peshmerga, which in 2014 prevented Islamic State from capturing Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled in the face of the militants. They are effectively running the region, also claimed by Turkmen and Arabs.

Hardline Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region and other disputed areas.

The Sinjar region is populated by Yazidis, the followers of an ancient religion who speak a Kurdish language and the group most persecuted by Islamic State. Makhmour is south of the Kurdish capital Erbil and Khanaqin is near the border with Iran.

Kirkuk's Kurdish-led provincial council earlier this year rejected a resolution by the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad to lower Kurdish flags which since March have been flown alongside Iraqi flags on public buildings in the region.

Masrour Barzani, head of the Kurdish government's Security Council and son of President Barzani, said in June last year Iraq should be divided into separate Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Andrew Roche) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mi...-idUSKBN18Y284

[Shah-Jehan]

Do you support it or no?

[Böri]

Do you support it or no?

No. I am for territorial unity of Iraq but where we are now it looks difficult to stop it, Baghdad govt should launch an invasion. Unavoidably a state like this will want to unite with their people living next to their border which mean threat for neighbor countries. But looking at Turkey pathetic situation and what it became the future looks dark for Turkey tbh. So this happening just another problem. This is where Ottomanism brings Turkey now.

[N1019]

Good, do it.

It's time to quit fucking about and accept that Iraq is finished. Iraq was given a chance as a British-created post Ottoman entity with puppet rulers, but it was never stable, and a pack of "we know betters" overthrew and murdered its puppet in 1958. That was the beginning of the end for Iraq. Now, it's time to cut the artificial country up. Use Kurdistan as a major new US base in the region and launchpad for future war with Iran.

[Shah-Jehan]

No. I am for territorial unity of Iraq but where we are now it looks difficult to stop it, Baghdad govt should launch an invasion. Unavoidably a state like this will want to unite with their people living next to their border which mean threat for neighbor countries. But looking at Turkey pathetic situation and what it became the future looks dark for Turkey tbh.

The Kurdistan government is heavily dependent on Turkey in regards to economy/trade, so Turkey does have the power to stop it. Anyways, the Kurdistan region is basically independent anyway, so I don't think its independence officially wouldn't change much. I think they deserve it tbh, since the central government in Iraq is very ineffective when it comes to control.

[Böri]

The Kurdistan government is heavily dependent on Turkey in regards to economy/trade, so Turkey does have the power to stop it. Anyways, the Kurdistan region is basically independent anyway, so I don't think its independence officially wouldn't change much. I think they deserve it tbh, since the central government in Iraq is very ineffective when it comes to control.

The Georgian and his deluded advisors f*cked up all politics of Turkey and still using military coup thing to justify ventures and play the victim now. Kurds in Turkey have very high birth rate so time working for them. Today Turkey is like %25 Kurdish and set to be %40 in 2040 so ultimately it will take over Turkey too. Bad news only bad news nowadays. Ottomaniacness destroying Turkey. I am not sure if all govt in Turkey opposed actually many ministers are Kurdish in Turkey and many said they will recognise Barzani independence

[Odin]

I support their independence, they deserve to have a state.

[user_]

Good for them. I support.

[gültekin]

Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Wednesday announced it would hold a referendum on independence, in a move the central government in Baghdad is likely to oppose strongly.

"I am pleased to announce that the date for the independence referendum has been set for Monday, Sept. 25, 2017," Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said on Twitter.

Barzani's assistant Hemin Hawrami tweeted that voting would take place in the disputed region of Kirkuk and three other areas also claimed by the central government; Makhmour in the north, Sinjar in the northwest and Khanaqin in the east.

The president of Iraq's ruling Shi'ite coalition told Reuters in April it would oppose a Kurdish referendum. Ammar al-Hakim especially warned the Kurds against any move to annex oil-rich Kirkuk.

The referendum date was set after a meeting of Kurdish political parties chaired by Barzani, who heads the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Hawrami said the question put to voters would be "do you want an independent Kurdistan?"

A senior Kurdish official, Hoshiyar Zebari, told Reuters in April the expected "yes" vote would strengthen the Kurds' hand in talks on self-determination with Baghdad and would not mean automatically declaring independence.

The Kurds are playing a major role in the U.S.-backed campaign to defeat Islamic State (IS), the ultra-hardline Sunni Islamist group that overran about a third of Iraq three years ago and also controls parts of Syria.

IS fighters have been squeezed into a small area of Mosul, their de-facto capital in Iraq, as a push to retake the city closes in.

FEAR OF SEPARATISM

Iraq's majority Shi'ite Arab community mainly live in the south while the Kurds and the Sunni Arabs inhabit different areas of the north. The center around Baghdad is mixed.

The idea of Iraqi Kurdish independence has been historically opposed by Iraq and neighboring Iran, Turkey and Syria, as they fear separatism spreading to their own Kurdish populations.

Kurdish officials will visiting Baghdad and neighboring states to discuss the referendum plan, Erbil-based TV Rudaw said, adding that elections for the Kurdish regional parliament are planned for Nov. 6.

Iraq has been led by Shi'ites since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, by the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

The Kurds have their own armed force, the Peshmerga, which in 2014 prevented Islamic State from capturing Kirkuk after the Iraqi army fled in the face of the militants. They are effectively running the region, also claimed by Turkmen and Arabs.

Hardline Iranian-backed Iraqi Shi'ite militias have threatened to expel the Kurds by force from this region and other disputed areas.

The Sinjar region is populated by Yazidis, the followers of an ancient religion who speak a Kurdish language and the group most persecuted by Islamic State. Makhmour is south of the Kurdish capital Erbil and Khanaqin is near the border with Iran.

Kirkuk's Kurdish-led provincial council earlier this year rejected a resolution by the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad to lower Kurdish flags which since March have been flown alongside Iraqi flags on public buildings in the region.

Masrour Barzani, head of the Kurdish government's Security Council and son of President Barzani, said in June last year Iraq should be divided into separate Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish entities to prevent further sectarian bloodshed.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Andrew Roche) http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mi...-idUSKBN18Y284

lel, people should stop confuse PKK/PYD terrorists with Iraqi Kurdistan or at least stop to refererence sick fuck suicide bomber terrorists for a ethnicity and pull them all in one basket.
Even though i do not support the borzani crew, at least they are somehow legal acceptable then some suicide bombers, until they fight against this pkk/pyd terrorist rats.
KRG reiterates call to PKK to stop deployment, withdraw from Sinjar
https://www.dailysabah.com/war-on-te...aw-from-sinjar

The Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has reiterated its call to the PKK terrorist organization to stop deploying heavy weapons and to withdraw its militants from Sinjar.

In a written statement by KRG peshmerga forces, military activity by the PKK near the Iraqi-Syrian border was remarked on, and the KRG warned the PKK to withdraw its militants from Sinjar, which were deployed in the region under the guise of protecting the local Yazidi population.

On Friday, clashes erupted between peshmerga forces and the PKK's Yazidi branch, known as the Sinjar Resistance Units (YBŞ) in the Khanasor area located in northwestern Sinjar.The clashes lasted for more than two hours and resulted in casualties for both sides.

"The PKK continues to reinforce its militants near Khanasor from Syria with heavy weapons in order to increase the tensions. The organization is stationed in Sinjar without the consent of the KRG and the Yazidi people. The KRG won't let any illegal establishments happen in the region. We are reiterating our call for the withdrawal of PKK militants," the statement read.

Meanwhile, peshmerga chief of staff Jamal Iminiki said on Saturday that the PKK and its armed offshoots in Sinjar receive funding from Hashd al-Shaabi, the Iran-backed paramilitary forces, to complete the so-called "Shiite Crescent," and open a corridor from Iraq to Syria. In an interview with Kurdistan24, Iminiki said that over 1,000 fighters from the PKK's armed wings, such as the YBŞ, receive salaries from the Hashd al-Shaabi, known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF).

"The stationing of PKK-affiliated groups in the area is under a regional agenda. They are directed and lined by the Hashd al-Shaabi, Iran, and Syria to complete the Shiite Crescent in the region," Iminiki said.

The KRG also announced that the peshmerga ministry has incorporated 8,000 Yazidi fighters with the aim of protecting itself from Daesh attacks, adding that negotiations were still underway to employ more fighters.

Even though the PKK maintains its presence in Sinjar on the pretext of "protecting the Yazidi population," Yazidis have also opposed the terrorist organization's presence.

Recently, Mir Tahsin Saied Beg, an Iraqi Yazidi leader, spoke to local media in Irbil saying that Iraq's northern Sinjar, Sinune and Khanasor districts should be placed under the control of the KRG. "We want the PKK to leave Sinjar," Tahsin Saied Beg said.

[gültekin]

Do you support it or no?

who do you support ? borzani or suicide bombers ?