Kurds voted in an
independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from
Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote
may ignite yet more regional conflict.
The vote
organized by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable "yes” for
independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Masoud
Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to
negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.
For Iraqi
Kurds - the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire
collapsed a century ago - the referendum offers a historic opportunity despite
intense international pressure to call it off.
"We have
seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades,” said Talat,
waiting to vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as a group of smiling women,
in colorful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers
stained with ink, a sign that they voted.
At Sheikh
Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of
Kurdish fighters waited to vote outside a former school. Most emerged smiling,
holding up ink-marked fingers.
In Baghdad,
lawyer Adil Salman said the referendum resulted from the weakness of the Iraqi
government. "The scenario we’re seeing now is of state disintegration,” he
said.
The Kurds
also say the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State
after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of
Iraq.
But with 30
million ethnic Kurds scattered over international borders across the region,
Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish
populations.
President
Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey could cut off the pipeline that carries oil from
northern Iraq to the outside world, piling more pressure on the Kurds.
"After
this, let’s see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government
will send its oil, or where it will sell it,” Erdogan said in Istanbul. "We
have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it’s done.”
The U.S.
State Department warned the Kurds last week that "holding the referendum in
disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilizing.”
The
referendum is taking place not only in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq,
but also in areas in the north of the country where Kurdish forces have
advanced against Islamic State. These areas also have large non-Kurdish
populations.
Turkey said it did not
recognize the referendum and would view its outcome as null and void, adding
that the Iraqi Kurdish government was threatening the peace and stability of
Iraq and the whole region.
Prime
Minister Binali Yildirim said his government was evaluating possible punitive
steps regarding its border with northern Iraq and air space in response to the
vote.
Ankara
would make decisions in more direct talks with the Iraqi central government
after the referendum and economic, political, diplomatic and military steps
were being discussed, he told Turkish broadcasters.
Ankara’s
forces are again fighting a Kurdish insurgency in Turkey following the collapse
of a peace process.
Flight Ban
Iran
announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while
Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish
region and demanded that the KRG hands over control of its international
airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.
Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to
the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said Iran regarded the
referendum as "treason” against the Iraqi Kurds.
"Iran has
blocked air traffic to this region but we are hopeful that the four neighboring
countries will block the land borders with Iraq too,” he was quoted as saying
by state news agency IRNA.
Tehran
supports Shi‘ite groups who have been ruling or holding security and government
positions in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein in
2003.
Syria,
embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with
their own self-determination, rejected the referendum.
Iraqi
Kurdish prime Minister Nechirvan Barxani said he hoped to maintain good
relations with Turkey and the referendum was not a threat to Ankara.
"The
referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing
borders,” he told a news conference in Erbil. "If the ‘Yes’ vote wins, we will
resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully,” he said.
Opposition
Opposition
to the vote simmered among non-Kurdish populations in areas disputed by the KRG
and Baghdad, and mainly the multi-ethnic oil-rich region of Kirkuk.
"Iraq is
against the Kurds, so are the Turks, the Iranians, the whole Arab region and
Europe. They are going to live in a cage,” said Mohammed Mahdi al-Bayati, a
Shi‘ite Turkmen and a local leader of the Iranian-backed Badr Organisation
paramilitary group in Tuz Khurmato, south of Kirkuk.
In
Sulaimaniya, a bastion for political groups opposed to Barzani, queues at
polling stations were shorter than those in Erbil. There were fewer billboards
celebrating the referendum, reflecting resentment that a yes vote could be seen
as a plebiscite for the Kurdish leader.
"I will
not vote, the referendum is not good, and it could be dangerous because of the
threat from Turkey and Iran,” said a shop owner in Sulaimaniya, Ali Ahmed.
After
World War One, Britain and France carved up the Ottoman empire, leaving the
Kurds scattered mainly over four countries: Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria.
All of them suffered
persecution and were often denied the right to speak their language. Those in
Iraq were uprooted under Saddam and suffered an attack using chemical weapons.
Polling Stations
Polling
stations opened at 8:00 a.m. (0500 GMT) and should close at 6:00 p.m. final
results were expected within 72 hours.
Voting is
open to all registered residents, Kurds and non-Kurds, in the Kurdish-held
areas of northern Iraq aged 18 and over, according to the referendum
commission.
There are
about 5.2 million eligible voters, including those living abroad and who began
voting two days ago.
Voters should tick yes or
no on the ballot asking them just one question in Kurdish, Turkish, Arabic and
Assyrian: "do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the
(Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?”
(Reuters)