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| World MarketPlace |
Kurdistan's Revival
Michael M. Gunter
05/02/2005
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The Iraqi Kurds have been deservedly upbeat since they elected the second
largest bloc in the country’s new 275-seat constitutional assembly. Indeed, many
Kurds who emigrated while Saddam Hussein was in power have returned. Members of
this affluent diaspora are now building handsome homes in the Kurdish cities of
Irbil and Sulaymaniya. Kurds openly discuss the possibility of retaking Kirkuk,
the oil-rich city that Saddam turned into an Arab enclave by driving out tens of
thousands of Kurds, Turkmen and Christians. Many of these individuals remain
displaced. In the wake of Saddam, the Kurds now dare to talk about establishing
an independent federal nation in the northern province of Iraqi-Kurdistan with
its capital at Kirkuk (although the Iraqi Turkmen also claim it as theirs, and
are prepared to fight for it). For the first time in Iraq’s 80-year history,
the country’s Kurds have a viable hope of self-determination. Many Kurds view
the election as the first step in a very long journey toward statehood. But
their success at the polls might turn out to be a paper victory. It seems a
formidable task to put Iraq back together in a way that will satisfy the Kurds.
All they are willing to accept is a democratically elected federal government,
and the chances of that coming into being are slim, given the ethnic and
sectarian divisions. If another strongman tries to seize power in Iraq, the
Kurds will certainly refuse to surrender the economic and political successes
they have just begun to realize. In spite of these thorny challenges, there may
indeed be a bright new day ahead for the Iraqi Kurds.
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