Insight Turkey
Insight Turkey
Challenging ideas
On Turkish politics and International affairs

Author

Burak Bilgehan Özpek

Assistant Professor, Department of International Relation, TOBB University of Economics and Technology, bbozpek@etu.edu.tr
Burak Bilgehan Özpek
Democracy or Partition: Future Scenarios for the Kurds of Iraq
July 1, 2012
Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurdish politicians were involved in Baghdad governments, and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) became a federal unit with increased autonomy. Nevertheless, the KRG’s quest for keeping its autonomy was challenged after the withdrawal of US forces at the end of 2011. When US forces left Iraq, the Baghdad government, headed by Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, the leader of the Shiite State of Law Coalition, tried to centralize power. Unsurprisingly, Maliki’s centralization efforts have generated criticism and secessionist repercussions among Kurdish political circles. Furthermore, the Maliki government has violated the basic principles of power sharing, which is sine qua non to strengthen the confidence-building processes in divided societies. Increasingly, the Kurds’ willingness to remain as part of Iraq considerably decreases as the Baghdad government consolidates its power and excludes the ethnic and religious groups from the political system.

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