Dear Comrades,

Allow me first to express our appreciation for organising this seminar on a topical issue, on the situation in Kurdistan and the Kurdish national question, in the current complex situation in the Middle East, with enormous dangers and challenges, as well as opportunities, for the peoples of the region, especially in the near future, the period post-Daesh. It is a unique opportunity to exchange experiences and views about this issue, with the participation of the communist parties in Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria, and the Communist Party of Britain.

Taking into account the time constraint, I will concentrate on the position of the Iraqi Communist Party on the Kurdish national question. This issue has influenced the political life and developments in the modern history of the state of Iraq since it came into being after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War and British occupation.

- Our party became active in Kurdistan almost from the time of its foundation in 1934. Its earliest party newspaper “Kifah al-Sha’b” (People’s Struggle), carried slogans in favour of Kurdish rights, and Communist organisations were set up in Arbil and other Kurdish centres in 1941 and 1942. In addition, “Azadi”, the first Kurdish political paper, was edited by members of the party. An editorial in the first issue of the paper in 1944 declared: “We urge the politically conscious of our people and every sincere Kurd who loves his people and homeland … to struggle for democratic parties and associations to organize the Kurdish people, to prepare them and enable them to achieve self-determination so that their union with the Arabs would be a voluntary union based on equality of rights.”

- The party stressed Kurdish rights in its National Charter, which was endorsed in the first Party Conference in 1944 and subsequently by the first National Congress in 1945. The Charter also called for guaranteeing the rights other smaller ethnic minorities, including the Turkomen, Armenians and Yezidis.

- Iraqi CP was effectively the first political party to develop a coherent policy on the Kurdish question, which put forward a plan for autonomy based on Kurdish self-determination.

- The party’s principled stance towards the Kurdish question was always based on the Marxist and Leninist principle which endorses the right of all nations, small and big, to self-determination and emancipation from national oppression. It has strived under all conditions to translate this general principle into specific formulations that take into account the existing political reality, the conditions of society, the external factors and developments, and the relevant balance of forces inside Iraq.

- It always regarded the Kurdish question as part of the cause of democracy for the whole of Iraq, calling for a solution on a peaceful democratic basis that responds to the just national aspirations of the Kurdish people.

- The party mobilized the Iraqi people, Arabs, Kurds in the big national battles and struggle under the slogan: “On the bedrock of Arab-Kurdish Unity, the conspiracies of colonialism will be smashed”.

- The party consistently denounced the wars of aggression and chauvinist policies by successive anti-democratic and dictatorial regimes against the Kurdish people. On the other hand, it combated narrow nationalist tendencies, and the policies advocated by reactionary and exploitative elements among the Kurdish people to serve their own selfish class interests, against the interests of Kurdish workers, peasants and toilers.

- During and after the Second World War, the party continued to have a wide mass support in the Kurdish area, and was particularly influential before the Revolution of 14th July 1958, which ended the monarchy and ushered in the Iraqi Republic. Communists were actively involved in class and national battles in Kurdistan, including the uprisings of poor Kurdish peasants against feudal and tribal landlords.

- In 1957, on the eve of the 1958 Revolution, the party signed a bilateral agreement with the Kurdistan Democratic Party - KDP (which had been founded in 1946).

- After 14th July 1958 revolution, the new constitution promulgated at the end of July, stated that “Arabs and Kurds are partners in the Iraqi homeland, and their national rights are recognised within the Iraqi state”. It was a big step and achievement, considering that in other parts of Kurdistan (in Turkey, Iran and Syria) they were not even recognized as an ethnic entity.

- The slogan coined by the party in the following years was “Democracy for Iraq and Autonomy for Kurdistan”.

- In the late 1970s, after the bloody onslaught against the party and democratic forces by Saddam’s regime, the party launched the armed communist partisan movement in Iraqi Kurdistan and set up bases there. It waged armed struggle alongside the Kurdish national movement, until the late 1980s when the Iran-Iraq war ended and the fascist regime used chemical warfare and an infamous genocidal campaign against the Kurdish people, physically liquidating 180,000 people and destroying 4000 villages. Hundreds of Communists and party supporters were martyred during that heroic episode of struggle.

- In the early 1990s, taking into consideration the developments in Iraqi Kurdistan after the popular Uprising in March 1991 (as Saddam’s forces were expelled from the area, resulting in a de facto independent region controlled by the Kurdistan Front), the party was the first to advocate federalism as the proper form for the system of government for Iraq.

- Accordingly, federalism was considered the democratic solution of the Kurdish national question in the concrete conditions of Iraq.

- This position was endorsed by the party leadership in 1992 and also by its 5th Congress in 1993.

- In line with this position, and taking into account the nationalist character of the Kurdistan region and political developments in the Kurdish issue, the decision was taken in 1993 to transform the Kurdistan organisation of the party to the Kurdistan Communist Party – Iraq. The latter enjoys an autonomous status within the organisational structure of the Iraqi Communist Party.

- A mechanism for the relationship between the two parties has been developed since then. The internal party rules endorsed by the last 10th Congress of Iraqi CP, held in Baghdad in December 2016, stated that this relationship “is built on the basis of class and national interests, a joint ideological identity, an internationalist spirit, and the joint history of struggle within a multi-ethnic country.” It added that “the Central Committees of the two parties organize the relationship between them in accordance with the developments in the administrative – political reality of the Iraqi state.”

- After the war and political change in Iraq in 2003, the Iraqi Constitution which was adopted in 2005 endorsed federalism. Article 1 stated:

The Republic of Iraq is a single federal, independent and fully sovereign state in which the system of government is republican, representative, parliamentary, and democratic, and this Constitution is a guarantor of the unity of Iraq.

- The implementation of federalism has been hampered by serious obstacles created by the bankrupt sectarian-ethnic power-sharing system which was imposed on Iraq after the war and US occupation. This system has plunged the country into a deep political crisis, with rampant corruption and fierce infighting among the ruling political groups over power, influence and wealth. The Kurdish political groups that dominate the Kurdistan Regional Government are part of this system. As a result, the relationship between the federal government and the regional government have been fraught with tension, unresolved problems, broken agreements and mistrust. Among outstanding issues are those concerning the oil wealth and the problem of “disputed areas” which should be resolved on the basis of Article 140 in the Constitution. All this has undermined the country’s stability and national unity, and opened the door to foreign interference, both regional and international.

- Our party has stressed that the new experience of federalism, and the internal and external challenges it has faced, requires continuous dialogue to resolve the outstanding problems and combat the influences of chauvinist and racist elements, narrow nationalism and external sabotage.

- The Kurdistan region itself has also faced its own internal political crisis, with corruption and worsening living conditions, resulting in increased social tensions and mounting popular resentment. This was compounded by austerity measures taken to deal with the financial crisis caused by a sharp drop in oil prices. Internal divisions deepened and led to a paralysis of the regional parliament since late 2015. The situation was made even worse and more dangerous after the onslaught of terrorist Daesh, the fall of Mosul in June 2014, and direct threats to Kurdistan region itself. A wave of about 2 million internally displaced people was an additional heavy burden to the region.

- It is under these circumstances that the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region has recently called for holding a referendum (on 25th September 2017) on independence and the formation of the Kurdistan state.

- In principle, the Kurdistan region has the right to seek the opinion of its people in this regard, but the implications of the referendum and its results will depend, in part, on the position of the Federal Government and how it deals with the outcome of the referendum. It is therefore appropriate to reach an understanding with it on the holding of the referendum.

The decision to hold the referendum has faced increasing objections inside Iraq, regionally and internationally (e.g., Iran, Turkey…etc.). Inside the Kurdistan Region, critics have considered the referendum (which will be followed by presidential and parliamentary election for the region on 6th November 2017) an attempt to divert attention from the internal political crisis.

To allay these concerns, the Kurdistan region’s leadership announced that the referendum and its results do not mean separation and a declaration of independence, but would be a popular mandate for conducting subsequent negotiations with the Federal Government.

- With regard to the referendum in the “disputed areas”, our party believes that it should be consistent with the Constitution and the provisions of Article 140 which deals with these areas.

We stress once again that federalism, within a federal democratic civil state, is the proper formulation in the present conditions for the Kurdish people and population of Kurdistan to exercise their political, social and cultural rights freely, and with effective participation in the federal government. We have also warned against the dangers of agitating chauvinist sentiments.

The priority at present is to concentrate on combating terrorism, defeating Daesh, strengthening national unity, building democracy and its institutions and activating dialogue. This is the proper path forward to consolidate the federal experience, serving the interests of the Kurdish people and all the Iraqi people.

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