Turks' recent threat to invade tells many they need Iraq
By Bay Fang
The Chicago Tribune, 02 December 2007
IRBIL, Iraq
In the barren brown hills outside the Kurdish capital of Irbil, across the highway from what used to be the American outpost in northern Iraq, a little piece of the U.S. is being built.
Skeletons of villas dot the hillside, neat two-story structures with garages that look out of place among the spare cypress trees. A sign on the side of the highway is emblazoned with the same sun that is on the Kurdish flag, behind the words: American Village.
"It's a little Columbia, Md., here in Iraq," said Jim Covert, the Kurdistan country director for Virginia-based Sigma International Construction, developer of the $80 million project. "They love anything American here, so we're building this as a typical American subdivision."
The project, which will include 400 villas and a mall, originally waa intended for Baghdad. When that city descended into chaos, the company decided to transplant the concept 200 miles north, far from the car bombs and sectarian violence that plagued the rest of Iraq.
American Village is one of a gaggle of complexes popping up around town with such names as English Village and Italian Village to house thousands of international businesspeople and middle-class Iraqis pouring into the area.
The regional government passed its own investment and oil laws last year and recently announced more than 20 oil and gas agreements with foreign companies. These are all signs of the Kurdistan region's speedy path to what some might call de facto independence.
Despite their long-held aspirations toward independence, many Kurds may now be at a crossroads in their thinking.
The recent threat of an incursion by Turkey in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas has caused many here to recognize how much they need Iraq. Concerns about that threat rose again Saturday when the Turkish military announced it had attacked 50 to 60 Kurdish rebels inside Iraqi territory, inflicting "significant losses," although the threat of a large-scale invasion has diminished.
While some of the region's leaders have pushed for a more active role for the Kurdish regional government in negotiating a solution to the crisis, they also were forced to confront the reality that they could not go it alone.
"Many of us have come to recognize that nationalism is both limiting and limited," said Barham Saleh, a Kurd and deputy Iraqi prime minister. "While I as a Kurd always dream of a Kurdish state, and consider it a fundamental right of the Kurdish people, I have come to see that being part of the larger market of Iraq, with the protections afforded us by a democratic Iraq, offers the Kurdish people tangible advantages."
Since the Kurdish enclave became semiautonomous after the 1991 gulf war, under the protection of a UN-established no-fly zone, it has been surrounded by neighbors with sizable Kurdish ethnic populations and therefore wary of the Kurdish experiment in self-rule. At various times, Syria, Turkey and Iran have all launched attacks inside the territory.
In the most recent crisis, many watchers of the Kurdistan region believe that if it had not been part of a sovereign Iraq, the Turkish military would not have hesitated to launch a much more significant attack across the border. While concerns about that possibility have diminished, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that his Cabinet had authorized the army to mount "a cross-border operation."
The Washington factor
The Kurdistan region's relationship with the U.S., commonly seen as its protector, also depends largely on its role in the greater Iraq. Washington considers Kurdish participation in the Baghdad government as a key to protecting American interests in Iraq.
"The Kurds' role in Baghdad is fundamental to checking the rise of [Shiite] fundamentalism," said one senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. "If the Kurds weren't part of the central government in Baghdad, it would simply be a [Shiite] majority dominating a Sunni minority, and the chances of a secure, stable and prosperous Iraq would be severely diminished."
But some Kurds feel conflicted, believing the region does more for the central government than it gets in return. Under the constitution's revenue-sharing formula, the northern Kurdish enclave receives 17 percent of all Iraqi oil revenue. But many Kurds think their economy deserves more.
Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Kurdish government's head of foreign relations, argues that the Kurdistan region should not be held back by the central government's ineptitude.
"It should not just be us doing things. Iraq has a big budget, but it can't implement it," he said. But he articulates the dilemma faced by the region. "Today we live in Iraq. We want to help our people, and we want to help build Iraq. But at the same time, we want to move ahead, and provide a better quality of life. The question is, can we do it alone?"
For many in Iraqi Kurdistan, the answer was always "of course." In an informal referendum conducted alongside Iraq's 2005 election, 95 percent of voters said they would prefer an independent Kurdistan.
Back at the American Village office, Awat al-Barzanji pores over the plans for his 9,000-square-foot villa, known as the "Palace" model.
Al-Barzanji, who was the spokesman for the United Nations in Irbil from 1997 to 1999, returned in 2004 to work for his family's construction company.
'Always that if'
"This place could turn into a miniature [United Arab Emirates] in five years' time," he said. "But there's always that if -- if their cards are played right, if policies have that as an aim, if they draw a line between Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq, and keep all the problems down there."
Thousands of refugees from other parts of Iraq have arrived over the past few years, but tough registration laws limit the number who stay. A security trench around Irbil is 3 yards wide and 3 yards deep, and there are only seven points of entry around the city. Kurdish militiamen who staff the checkpoints quiz those entering the city and are especially tough on Arab newcomers.
Despite popular distrust, the Kurdistan government is trying to reach out both to neighboring countries and to other Iraqis.
The government also has reached out diplomatically to Iran, which opened a new consulate in November. Although several countries have what are called embassy offices or commercial sections in the Kurdish north, Iran and Russia are the only ones with full consulates.
"They are acting like a state as much as they can," said Luigi Orsini, whose card reads Consular Correspondent of the Embassy of Italy in Baghdad but who is referred to as the Italian ambassador. "They have their own channels to receive diplomats."
Citation: Bay Fang. "Kurdish region rethinking independence," The Chicago Tribune, 02 December 2007.
Original URL: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-kurds_fangdec02,1,3535876.story?ctrack=1&cset=true