Is Iraq’s Kurdish region seeking independence?

Iraq’s northern Kurdish regional government (KRG) has recently been digging trenches from Rabia, near the Syrian border west of Mosul, to the outskirts of the eastern province of Diyala.

The trenches have raised concerns that it might be a prelude to a Kurdish announcement of independence from Iraq amid concerns of security for minority groups.

While Arabs and Turkmen expressed their concerns about KRG’s trenches in disputed areas, the latter says the digging comes within the context of security measures against Daesh.

Nasreddin Said, the KRG’s Minister for Disputed Areas clarified that “the two reasons to dig trenches is firstly to establish a defense line for Peshmerga forces against Daesh, and the second is that the central government in Baghdad lacks the capability to protect these areas, and is unable to help with the demarcation of disputed areas.”

Mosul’s Sinjar and Hamadaniya areas, Saladin province’s Kirkuk and Tuz Khormato, as well as some areas in Diyala province are stated in Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution as disputed areas.

However, the efforts to settle the dispute in 2007 had failed because of disagreements between Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds with regards to the implementation of the article.

Said denied claims that KRG is digging a 1,000-kilometer-long trench, asserting that Peshmerga forces do not totally control the disputed areas in question.

Ali Awni, the Council Chief of the President Masoud Barzani-led Kurdistan Democratic Party, said the trenches are aimed at strengthening security in the region and denied claims that digging trenches is a preamble for independence.

Hasan Turan, a Parliamentarian from Kirkuk province, expressed Turkmen concerns. Turan stated that by digging the trenches the KRG is implementing a “de facto” policy.

Turan said the trenches divide Turkmen areas and demanded Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to clarify the KRG’s actions.

Former Turkmen MP Fevzi Ekrem said that “there is an international project to divide Iraq into Shia, Sunni and Kurdish states, and that the project is being applied in Turkmen disputed areas.”

Ekrem also said that Erbil aims to take control of oil revenues in the disputed areas, adding that a French company is performing the trenches project.

Ekrem explained that Turkmen do not want to be the victims of the struggle between the KRG and the central government, and demanded the UN Security Council to stop the digging project.

“Turkmen had lost most in the political process in Iraq after 2003, as they lost their identity, land and history because of conspiracies against them as some parties intentionally excluded them from political, economic and military sectors,” Ekrem added.

Jasim Muhammed, Saladin province’s Turkmen MP, said that digging trenches that start from the Syria-Iraq border, and pass through disputed areas until the Iraq-Iran border, is incompatible with international laws.

Majed al-Gharawi, a member of Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee, said that the KRG is taking advantage of the country’s current violate security situation and the fight against Daesh to assert its own sovereignty. Al-Gharawi said that al-Abadi’s central government will not open a new front with Kurds to contest the trenches because the fight against Daesh is its primary focus.

The greatest dream of Kurds is to achieve full independence from Iraq, and the trenches project comes as their first step to achieve that dream.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.