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Booming Kurdistan rethinks independence
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December 4, 2007 3:31 AM
MCT NEWSFEATURES
(ARCHIVE GRAPHIC) (HAS TRIM)
Chicago Tribune
(MCT)
IRBIL, Iraq - In the barren brown hills outside the Kurdish capital of Irbil, across the highway from what used to be the American outpost in northern Iraq, a little piece of the U.S. is being built.
Skeletons of villas dot the hillside, neat two-story structures with garages that look out of place among the cypress trees. A sign on the side of the highway is emblazoned with the same sun that is on the Kurdish flag, behind the words: American Village.
''It's a little Columbia, Maryland, here in Iraq,'' said Jim Covert, the Kurdistan country director for Virginia-based Sigma International Construction, the developer on the $80 million project. ''They love anything American here, so we're building this as a typical American subdivision.''
The project, which will include 400 villas and a mall, was originally intended for Baghdad. When that city descended into chaos, the company decided to transplant the concept 200 miles north, far from the car bombs and sectarian violence that plagued the rest of Iraq.
American Village is one of a gaggle of complexes popping up around town with names like English Village and Italian Village to house the thousands of international businesspeople and middle-class Iraqis pouring into the area.
The regional government passed its own investment and oil laws last year, and recently announced more than 20 oil and gas agreements with foreign companies. These are all signs of the Kurdistan region's speedy path to what some might call de facto independence, as it embraces foreign investment and tries to establish its own relationships with neighboring countries.
But the recent threat of an incursion by Turkey in pursuit of Kurdish guerrillas has caused many Kurds to recognize how much they need Iraq. While some of the region's leaders pushed for a more active role for the regional government in negotiating a solution, they were also forced to confront the reality that they could not go it alone.
''Many of us have come to recognize that nationalism is both limiting and limited,'' said Barham Salih, a Kurd who is Iraq's deputy prime minister. ''While I as a Kurd always dream of a Kurdish state, and consider it a fundamental right of the Kurdish people, I have come to see that being part of the larger market of Iraq, with the protections afforded us by a democratic Iraq, offers the Kurdish people tangible advantages.''
Since the Kurdish enclave became semi-autonomous after the first Gulf War, under the protection of a U.N.-established no-fly zone, it has been surrounded by neighbors wary of the Kurdish experiment in self-rule. At various times, Syria, Turkey, Iran and the Iraqi government have all launched attacks inside the territory.
In the most recent crisis, many Kurdistan watchers believe that if the region had not been part of a sovereign Iraq, the Turkish military would not have hesitated to launch a major attack across the border.
Kurdistan's relationship with the U.S., commonly seen as the region's protector, also depends largely on its role in the greater Iraq. Washington considers Kurdish participation in the Baghdad government as a key to protecting American interests in Iraq.
''The Kurds' role in Baghdad is fundamental to checking the rise of Shia fundamentalism,'' said one senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. ''If the Kurds weren't part of the central government in Baghdad, it would simply be a Shia majority dominating a Sunni minority, and the chances of a secure, stable and prosperous Iraq would be severely diminished.''
But some Kurds feel conflicted, believing the region does more for the central government than it gets in return. Under the constitution's revenue sharing formula, the northern Kurdish enclave receives 17 percent of all oil revenue produced in Iraq. But many Kurds think their economy deserves a bigger share.
Falah Mustafa Bakir, the Kurdish government's head of foreign relations, argues that the Kurdistan region should not be held back by the central government's ineptitude.
''It should not just be us doing things. Iraq has a big budget, but it can't implement it,'' he said. But he articulates the dilemma faced by the region. ''Today we live in Iraq. We want to help our people, and we want to help build Iraq. But at the same time, we want to move ahead, and provide a better quality of life. The question is, can we do it alone?''
For many in Iraqi Kurdistan, the answer was always ''of course.'' In an informal referendum conducted alongside Iraq's 2005 election, 95 percent of voters said they would prefer to live in an independent Kurdistan.
Back at the American Village office, Awat al-Barzanji pores over the plans for his 9,000-square-foot villa, known as the ''Palace'' model.
Al-Barzanji, who was the spokesman for the United Nations in Irbil from 1997 to 1999, returned in 2004 to work for his family's construction company. ''This place could turn into a miniature (United Arab Emirates) in five years' time,'' he said. ''But there's always that if - if their cards are played right, if policies have that as an aim, if they draw a line between Kurdistan and the rest of Iraq, and keep all the problems down there.''
Thousands of refugees from other parts of Iraq have arrived over the last few years, but tough registration laws limit the numbers who stay. A security trench around Irbil is 3 yards wide and 3 yards deep, and there are only seven points of entry around the city. The peshmerga, or Kurdish militia, who staff the checkpoints quiz those entering the city, and are especially tough on Arab newcomers.
But despite popular distrust, the Kurdistan government is trying to reach out both to neighboring countries and to other Iraqis.
The government has also reached out diplomatically to Iran, which briefly closed its border with the region in October after the U.S. military arrested an Iranian it accused of being affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard's Al-Quds Force.
Tehran opened a new consulate last month in a sandstone mansion in a nondescript residential neighborhood of Irbil. Although several countries have what are called embassy offices or commercial sections in the Kurdish north, Iran and Russia are the only ones with full consulates.
''They are acting like a state as much as they can,'' said Luigi Orsini, whose card reads Consular Correspondent of the Embassy of Italy in Baghdad, but who is referred to as the Italian ambassador. ''They have their own channels to receive diplomats.''
Meantime, the region continues to speed along.
The new, private American University of Iraq in Sulaymaniyah has just started classes in a cluster of prefab structures off the highway near the city of Sulaymaniyah. Like many other projects, the university - conceived by Deputy Prime Minister Salih - was supposed to have its first campus in Baghdad. The students, many of whom speak English better than Arabic, interrupt their teacher freely, in a boisterous, American classroom environment. Kurdistan Fatah, an earnest 18-year-old, dreams of becoming a human rights lawyer. She says she wants to go overseas, but eventually come back to the region.
''There are not enough opportunities now to do what you want here,'' she said, ''but if we work hard, maybe we can make our own way!''
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(c) 2007, Chicago Tribune.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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