The Iraqi Kurds’ Federalism Imperative

Abstract

The Iraqi Constitution—adopted by a referendum held on October 15, 2005, over bitter Sunni Arab opposition and the resulting elections held on December 15, 2005—might ultimately prove stillborn. Until recently at least the numerically majority Shiite Arabs sought simple majoritarian rule and at heart still do. This is a formula totally unacceptable to the numerically minority Kurds who—after enjoying more than a decade of de facto independence—do not welcome reincorporation into a centralized unitary state that had carried out genocide, ethnic expelling, and forced assimilation at their expense. For their part, the Sunni Arabs continue to seek to preserve as much of their former prerogatives as possible, while particularly fearing their economic marginalization. Moreover, Sunni Arab Iraq has also become a deadly war-torn region involving U.S. and Iraqi government (actually Shiite Arab and Kurdish) troops against Sunni Arab Iraqi and foreign jihadist insurgents. The Sunni Arab region is also suffused with an unemployed, dispossessed population that resents foreign occupation and looks upon the Kurds as U.S. collaborators or worse. All