Kurdish independence a hot issue once more

[Sara Johnson]

Kurdish independence a hot issue once more

04/08/2011 18:34

Baghdad, August 4 (AKnews) - The question of the right to Kurdish self-determination has raised concerns again after a Kurdish youth group formed recently in Duhok - Kurdistan third largest city - to call for the establishment of a Kurdish state.

The Kurdish Nation State Group announced its formation on Sunday at a press conference. Spokesperson Niwar Mohammed Salim told reporters that the group was formed to put pressure on the regional authorities to work towards the establishment of an independent Kurdish state.

He said the group believed in peaceful and diplomatic means in addition to support from international laws, human rights organizations, and UN compacts in the attempt to proclaim independence from Iraq.

Arab politicians in Iraq and the Arab world crated a fuss last year when the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani told his party's conference that self-determination was a legitimate right for the Kurds. Arab politicians accused the Kurdish region of planning secession from Iraq.

On Thursday, a member of the Sadrist bloc in the parliament Maha al-Duouri told AKnews that attempts by some civil society organizations in Kurdistan in moving towards the creation of a Kurdish state will "negatively affect the Kurdish people."

"We advise not yielding to foreign agendas that would take them (Kurds) away from Iraq," al-Douro told Aknews. "There are some of the sons of the Kurdish people who are being affected by foreign powers."

Al-Douri warned that "Any attempt to devide, or separate from, Iraq will only end up with the Kurdish people in woe."

Spokesman for the Kurdish Blocs Coalition (KBC) in Baghdad Moayyed Tayyib told AKnews that: "All nations have the right to self determination. On the same grounds, the Kurds too have the right to establish their own independent state if it so chooses."

But he also noted that: "The KBC has chosen to join and coexist within a free and democratic Iraq."

Though the KBC supports self-determination for the Kurds, Tayyib said: "Our policies confirms that if the Baghdad government commits to the Iraqi constitution and the agreements struck between Baghdad and Erbil, we will stay within Iraq."

By Yazn al-ShammariRY/PS

http://www.aknews.co...knews/4/255298/

[FRUSTRATED]

KILL AL-SADR and things will calm down.

[fastarnie]

All they want is the full government to be seated and the erbil agreement implemented, so they can be part of a free and democratic Iraq. Otherwise don't want anything to do with this squabbling GOI they have now. Hopefully soon as the GOI has come a long way according to the articles coming out.