Kurdish Leaders: Do Arabs See Kurds As First Class Citizens?

Ilnur Cevik
ANKARA - Turkish Daily News
Iraqi Kurdish tempers have come to boiling point with the failure of the United Nations Security Council to endorse the interim constitution of Iraq that assures Kurdish autonomy and the composition of the recently announced cabinet in Baghdad where Kurds have been denied top posts like the seat of the prime minister or the presidency.
"We are deeply disappointed and feel deceived," said a leading Kurdish official in a telephone interview form northern Iraq. Asking not to be named officials said
The highly placed official said Kurds want to be treated on equal standing with the Arabs in Iraq and fear this is not the case as Shiite Arabs especially oppose giving veto powers to the Kurds.
The Iraqi Kurdish official said the Kurds are angry and the local people in northern Iraq are demanding prompt action by their leaders as a reaction to what they see as Arab efforts to deny their rights.
Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Erbil, has already threatened to pull Kurdish ministers out of the cabinet as a protest if the United Nations failed to approve the Iraqi interim constitution that recognizes Kurdish autonomy. The U.N. Security Council passed a resolution on Tuesday night endorsing the transfer of sovereignty to Iraq`s new government by the end of June.
The resolution mentioned a "democratic and federal Iraq" that was designed to appease the Kurds who have been pushing for federalism. However Barham Salih, the prime minister of the Kurdish Regional Government in Suleymania, said this did not satisfy the Kurdish leadership.
The United States and the United Nations apparently did not want to mention the interim constitution in the resolution because they felt any basic law in Iraq should be decided by a legitimate Iraqi body and not imposed on the Iraqi people by them.
Iraqi Kurdish leaders wanted either the post of the prime minister or the president in the cabinet but did not get either. They were given a post as vice president and as deputy prime minister but that did not satisfy them. They also had the portfolios of foreign minister, minister of municipalities and public works, Ministry of Irrigation and two state ministries. Barham Salih who was named deputy prime minister in charge of national security has still not accepted the post and is awaiting some clarifications from Prime Minister Iyad Alawi, the Turkish Daily news was told.
Meanwhile, the TDN learnt that Kurdish leaders Masoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani are in close consultations to decide what future source to take in view of the U.N. resolution on Iraq.
Kurds angry
Kurdish members of Iraq`s government will resign if called upon to do so by their leaders after the failure of the latest U.N. resolution to recognise Kurdish autonomy, a senior Kurdish minister told Reuters on Wednesday.
"If the leadership calls on us to withdraw from the government, then we will do so," Public Works Minister Nasreen Berwari told Reuters.
"All the struggles we made last year have been lost ... we`ve seen how democracy can be usurped," she said in reaction to the Security Council resolution.
Before the U.N. vote, Talabani and Barzani, who lead the PUK and KDP parties respectively, threatened to withdraw Kurdish officials from the interim government, said Kurds would not take part in national elections next year and would "bar representatives of the central government from Kurdistan."
Berwari said she fully supported Talabani and Barzani`s position and said the lack of endorsement for the interim constitution was a rejection of all minority rights.
"I`m disappointed not only as a Kurd but as a woman ... This is not what we fought for, what we committed to and what we sacrificed for -- we`re very disappointed in the United States."
She said she, other Kurdish ministers and senior Kurdish officials were awaiting word from the Kurdish leadership on what to do. She said she expected a decision shortly.
"I am standing by my leadership. We will continue to talk, this is not the end, but we really thought that everyone would find it in themselves to recognise the rights laid down in the interim constitution," she said.