Kurdish parties respond to Barzani’s call for a referendum on Kurdistan independence

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Kurdistan region ‘Iraq’,— The main Kurdish political parties have responded to Masoud Barzani’s call to take measures to form a united effort for a referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Change Movement (Gorran) Spokesman Shorish Haji told NRT on Saturday the joint leadership of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Gorran would respond to Barzani’s call for a referendum.

The PUK said in its latest meeting that the party stresses the referendum is a democratic right for the people of the Kurdistan Region.

The Secretary-General of the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU), Salahuddin Bahadin, said during a press conference in Duhok that Kurdish parties should first try to make peace with one another before taking steps on a referendum for independence.

“Party leadership should come together to solve the issues [inside the Kurdistan Region],” Bahadin said. “It is not time to stand against one another.”

Bahadin specifically referred to issues between the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Gorran following the prevention of Kurdistan Parliament Speaker Yousif Mohammed from reaching Erbil.

Barzani called on the Kurdistan Region’s political parties on June 23 to take “necessary measures” to form a national united effort for a referendum on the region’s independence.

“No goal is higher and more sacred than to decide [our] fate and independence,” Barzani said. “We must not allow this opportunity to become the victim of internal disputes.”

In response to Barzani’s call, the head of the Kurdistan Islamic Group’s (KIG) Political Council, Mohammed Hakim, said Barzani should make the first step to end the political stalemate inside the Kurdistan Region if he wants a national united consensus on the referendum and independence.

“The issues should be solved and Kurdistan’s Parliament should also be reactivated,” Hakim said.

Analysts and some Kurdish politicians accuse KDP party of using the self-determination issue as means to stay in power and monopoly it.

After ten years in office Massoud Barzani, whose term as President of the Kurdistan Region ended on August 20, 2015, but refused to step down and remains unofficially in office.

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