Respect the constitution, learn from the past: PM Barzani tells Baghdad

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Region's prime minister on Sunday called on Baghdad to respect the constitution and learn from the past, a week after the highly contentious federal budget bill passed through the Iraqi parliament.

“I call on the leaders in Baghdad to respect the constitution and learn from history,” Prime Minister Masrour Barzani said in a speech at a conference in Erbil promoting religious coexistence in the Region. 

“What we can achieve through peace and stability cannot be achieved through war and oppression,” he added. 

The prime minister’s speech comes a week after the Iraqi budget bill was approved by Iraq’s parliament. Disputes over articles related to the Kurdistan Region’s share postponed the session multiple times until an agreement was reached following rounds of negotiations between Kurdish and Iraqi sides.

“Our problem is not only the problem of salaries or financial matters, now most of our constitutional rights have been ignored and breached,” he said, referring to issues over land ownership between farmers in Kirkuk and the Iraqi government. 

For over 10 days, Kurdish and Turkmen farmers in Kirkuk have been protesting a decision by the Iraqi defense ministry for their lands to be seized. The farmers claim the lands belong to them and have urged the ministry to reverse its decision. 

Barzani said that they have compromised for the sake of the establishment of a federal and democratic Iraq, and tried their best to build a country where everyone feels that their rights and identities are preserved, and that this process seems to be derailing now.

“Iraq is gradually being taken in a direction that will face the bitter experiences of the past,” said Barzani.

Kurds have faced oppression and hundreds of atrocities under the Baathist regime in Iraq. Despite the regime’s fall in 2003, the trauma of the genocide and tyranny keeps the Kurds on guard to prevent the reoccurrence of similar events.

Since then, Erbil and Baghdad have had rocky political ties mainly due to the KRG announcing independent oil sales in 2014 following the start of the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) and holding a referendum for independence in 2017, prompting Baghdad to cut KRG’s share from the federal budget.

Baghdad and Erbil signed a deal to resume the exports of the Kurdistan Region’s oil following a late March ruling on a case between Iraq and Turkey that led to the suspension of the Region’s oil flow to global markets. Oil exports are yet to resume despite the agreement.

According to the budget bill approved by the parliament, the revenue from KRG oil sales will be deposited in a joint bank account monitored by both governments, while Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) will undertake the marketing and sale of the region’s oil.