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By Mufid Abdulla:
President Barzani’s meeting with Gorran leader Nawshirwan Mustafa, during his recent visit to Sulaymani and Garmyan, began the first chapter in a relationship between the two parties since Gorran entered the Kurdistan parliament with 25 seats in July 2009. Barzani has broken the vicious circle and admitted that the forces of opposition are no longer ‘forces of uncertainty’.
The Gorran grassroots was quick to denounce this visit and speak of a hidden agenda between the two leaders. But the Gorran grassroots should realise that our minds and habits evolve more through challenges and struggles than through easy wins and over-indulgence. In this current situation in Kurdistan dialogue is essential to boost political life and the local economy, which has been surprisingly stimulated by the president’s visit according to real estate agents in Sualaymani and Arbil. Local website polls suggest wide public support, with around 54% considering the meeting a positive development.
The Gorran Party’s position is that it will back the KRG within the Iraq and Kurdistan parliaments on issues of national importance. This is confirmed by Gorran’s spokesman and second-in-command Mohammed Towfiq.
The KDP and the President of Kurdistan have come forward to seek help from all political parties. It is unrealistic to simply assume that they are not really playing ball. Masud Barzani’s visit is not a tactic but a strategy from a nationalist point of view. We can conclude the following:
1. The Gorran leader has been lauded within the KPD for the last three years as a better political partner in the south of Kurdistan than the PUK – especially by the supporters of former prime minister Nichiravan Barzani.
2. Pressure on the KRG from Arab nationalist-chauvinists in Baghdad is mounting. They are reneging on the whole constitution in respect of the Oil and Gas agreement and Article 140. It is an uphill battle for the KRG. Therefore, the president of Kurdistan’s historical duty is to create momentum. Baghdad will never come riding to Kurdistan’s rescue, as we have seen recently by its lack of response to the Iranian and Turkish bombardment of our borders.
3. Nawshirwan Mustafa is right to back Barzani at this moment of political stalemate with Baghdad. But he should make it a condition that, for this support to continue, Gorran needs tangible evidence of reforms being implemented and corruption tackled. The only way to test the worth of every party in Kurdistan is by seeing how they respond to this current crisis.
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Gorran/ Kak Newsherwan should have the following conditions on Mr. Barzani before meeting with him.
1. Mr. Barzani should have publicly admitted of the wrongdoing of burning Gorran’s offices in the “yellow” territory and compensated Gorran.
2. Mr. Barzani should have resumed Gorran’s budget. It has been used as a tool of pressure.
3. At the meeting, both leaders should have signed some type of agreement that such event (burning offices) will never occur in the future. You may remember such action occurred in 2005 against Yekgrtoo in Dihok.
During the last demonstration in Feb and March, Mr. Barzani ordered his militias “Zerevani” to tear down Kak Newsherwan headquarter in “Zergete” hill. If it wasn’t for Kak Kosret, who blocked the militias to enter Suleymania, it would have been another catastrophe.
Kak Newsherwan made a big mistake by meeting with Mr. Barzani in private. Gorran in the past has vociferously criticized and condemned behind the curtain meetings between political parties in Kurdistan, especially PUK and KDP. For whatever the reasons, such hidden meeting was unjustified.