National Defence University Islamabad Pakistan

1. Kurd factor: Threat to Iraq
Presentation by: WAQAR KHATTAK
MSc International Relations
National Defence University Islamabad Pakistan

2. Outline
• A short introduction
• Geographical location
• Threats posed by Iraq
→struggle for Autonomy and independence
→Oil resources issues
→Gulf war situation
→External involvement
→Peshmerga Forces

3. Who are Kurds?
• The Kurds are one of the world’s largest ethnic groups without an
independent state, numbering about 30 million people across Turkey,
Syria, Iraq and Iran. They speak various dialects of their own
language, Kurdish, although governments have sometimes banned its
usage. A majority are bilingual or multilingual, and are integrated into
the countries where they reside. Most are Sunni Muslim.

5. Estimated population=35 million
14.5 million in Turkey
6 million in Iran
5-6 million in Iraq
less than 2 million in Syria

6. Struggle for autonomy and independence
• Political parties-nationalist movements after WWII
• After WWI-Treaty of Sevres drafted to deal with the dissolution and
partition of the Ottoman Empire.
• The Treaty provided that a referendum be conducted to decide the issue of
the Kurdistan homeland.
• In 1990-1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi Kurds took control of the Iraqi Kurdistan
region and, with the protection of the Americans and British Air Forces in
enforcing a no-fly zone, achieved autonomy.
• In 1992, the Iraqi Kurdistan Front, an alliance of political parties, held
parliamentary and presidential elections and established the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG), a new autonomous Government of Kurdistan
in Iraq. In effect, this was the referendum that was promised at the end of
World War I.

8. Cont.
• In 1994,power share agreement fell apart between KDP and PUK leading to
civil war.
• Civil war continued for four years until 1998 when the PUK and KDP signed
the Washington Agreement, ending hostilities.
• In 2003 US invaded Iraq and Peshmerga joined it to over through Saddam.
• After Hussein was driven from office, the Iraqis, in a national referendum,
approved a new constitution. The new constitution recognized the Kurdistan
Regional Government.
• In 2006, the PUK and KDP agreed to unify administrations under Prime
Minister Nechirvan Barzani.

9. Oil resources issue
• Iraqi Kurdistan has been shipping oil to Turkey without Baghdad's
knowledge, resulting in Iraq violating an OPEC agreement, according
to accusations leveled Jan 3 by Iraq's prime minister.
• Iraq recently confirmed that a Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
minister had offered to sell oil fields to Turkey for $5 billion, again without
consulting Baghdad.
As the Kurdish political dispute rises up, a military force from the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on March 2 seized the Kirkuk oil field and stopped
the oil flows in order to push Baghdad to arrange a new oil agreement in the
favor of the PUK.
(al-monitor.com)

10. Peshmerga forces
• Peshmerga- those who face death
• Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq
• Number around 190,000
• loosely organized tribal border guards in the late 1800s
• formally organized as the national fighting force of the Kurdish people
after the fall of the Ottoman Empire
• evolved from tribal defenders to nationalist fighters for an
independent Kurdish state.
•

11. Gulf War Situation
• By the 1970s, Kurds had become divided between two factions controlling
the north and south of Iraqi Kurdistan. However, they both soon came into
conflict against the Iraqi state - rival Kurdish tribes united and the
movement for independence was strengthened.
• By the time of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s the Peshmerga had developed
into an effective guerrilla fighting force.
• Many Kurdish fighters were defectors from Saddam Hussein's Iraqi army,
and when the Peshmerga united across tribes to claim territory in Iraqi
Kurdistan, Saddam Hussein decided to act.
• Some Kurdish fighters had previously fought alongside Saddam Hussein's
forces in the war against Iran, but many Peshmerga then allied with Iranian
troops in order to bring more areas in Iraqi Kurdistan under their control

12. Halabja attack of 1988 and Anfal campaign
• Saddam Hussein began a campaign of collective punishment known
as the "Anfal" against the Kurds, for fighting with Iranian forces and
for seeking more territory
• The most notorious event in the Anfal campaign was the 1988 Halabja
chemical weapon attack in southern Kurdistan.
• Estimated loss-5000 people, mostly women and children when Iraqi
jets dropped poison gas on the town.
• As a result, the Peshmerga were forced to cease operations as more
than a million Kurds were displaced, and hundreds of thousands killed
throughout the Anfal campaign.

13. External powers
• USA:
U.S. forces have been working closely with Kurds in the war against the Islamic State. This
cooperation began in northern Iraq with the peshmerga, the armed forces of the autonomous
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.
U.S. had provided $415 million financial assistance to the peshmerga.
• Germany:
Germany sees German and international support for the Peshmerga and the Kurdistan Region
continuing for “quite a while,” to continue training the Peshmerga, supporting refugees, and
developing the economy to provide stability for the region
• Canada:
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau previously announced Canadian material support for the
Peshmerga a year ago, but only recently made good on the promise this month.
Beside these there are also other states which support the Kurdistan

14. conclusion
Kurds after the Saddam regime are considered threat to Iraq as well.
The Iraqi officials and elites are claiming that independent Kurdistan
will create a political tsunami whose waves will be felt across the entire
region and no country will accept it if declared today.
in my opinion, in international law perspective the referendum does
not need the permission of anyone, the problem is not legal but of the
neibouring countries which surrounds Kurdistan.