CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 34
CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VI (1)
important ally of the West. The Kurds tried to convert international
support and relative weakness of Iraq into independence.
After two years of break the parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan
convened a session and approved the independence referendum to be
passed on September 25 despite the Gorran and Komal parties
boycotted it. 65 MPs voted for the Kurdistan Region to hold an
independence referendum on September 25 in the Kurdistan Region
and the disputed areas 18 . After the independence referendum MPs
gathered again and in an urgent session on October 1 and rejected the
list of measures announced by the Iraqi parliament. The government
of the Kurdistan Region also refused to receive any military or Iraqi
security personnel to oversee the airports 19 .
After the referendum the Iraqi army and Shia militias, supported by
Iran, took back large territories from the control of Peshmerga,
including oil rich areas in Kirkuk. The difficult situation forced Kurds
to postpone general elections scheduled on November 1.
On October 29 Masoud Barzani announced he would not seek to
extend his term. He announced his resignation from the position of
president because of the crisis sparked by the independence
referendum in September 2017. Barzani’s legal authorities will be
distributed between the Parliament, Government and Judiciary
authorities in the Kurdistan Region 20 until new general elections,
which had to take place in November 1 and were postponed by 8
months.
The general elections of 2018 mark the end of the era of
charismatic leaders. The longtime leader of Iraqi Kurdistan and
Kurdish movement refused to be nominated as a candidate. Shortly
before the elections another Kurdish prominent leader and former
Iraqi president Jalal Talabani and as well as the Gorran leader
Nawshirwan Mustafa Amin passed away. The representatives of the
18
Kurdistan parliament approves independence referendum on Sept 25,
15.09.2017, http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/15092017
19
Kurdish
Parliament
Rejects
Iraqi
Measures,
01.10.2017,
https://english.aawsat.com/theaawsat/news-middle-east/kurdish-parliament-
rejects-iraqi-measures
20
البيشمركة صفوف في كمقاتل شعبي حقوق عن الدفاع في سأستمر : بارزاني الرئيس, 29.10.2017,
http://www.basnews.com/index.php/ar/news/kurdistan/389063
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