This reality has a lot to do with the fact that Iraq remains a deeply fractured country rather than a unified nation. The lines of division were bequeathed by the British colonizers some 80 years ago. They have been reinforced by the imperialist powers that have dominated Iraq ever since and by the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, which used brutal repression against both the Kurdish nationality in the north and the Shiite majority in the south.

An article in the May 19 Wall Street Journal, headlined “Kurds’ Success Makes it Harder To Unify All Iraq,” pointed to some of the complications this situation poses for Washington’s prospects of stabilizing its occupation.

The north and northeast region of Iraq—bordering Syria, Turkey, and Iran—is widely described as Iraqi Kurdistan. Politically dominated by the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), which have announced plans to form a unified government, the region is the “one part of the country that’s living up to the Bush administration’s vision of postwar Iraq,” claimed the big-business daily.

Numbering 5 million, the Iraqi Kurds are part of the 25-million strong oppressed Kurdish nationality straddling Iraq, Turkey, Iran, and Syria.

KDP and PUK leaders have directly collaborated with Washington’s military forces from the period following the 1990-91 Gulf War up to the present. During the 1990s, the U.S. and British air forces established a “no-fly” zone in the north, which largely shielded the region from Baghdad’s armed forces. Kurdish businessmen took advantage of the situation, establishing a relatively stable and—by Iraqi standards—prosperous enclave, pocketing both oil revenues and international “aid.”

During last year’s U.S.-led invasion, Kurdish militiamen fought alongside U.S. Special Forces against the Hussein regime.

The Journal stated that while Kurdish leaders are firmly pro-occupation, they have also said they will continue to support a unified Iraq only if their region is granted autonomy from the central government.

The U.S.-run occupation regime is utilizing the situation to push toward a federated Iraq. “U.S. officials say that once tensions recede” in the central regions, the Journal said, and a “central government is established, it will be workable to integrate the north as an autonomous region.”

Nechirwan Barzani, the prime minister of the western half of Iraqi Kurdistan, said that “independence isn’t a realistic approach.” However, he added, that “doesn’t mean we should never have it. A Kurd has never felt like an Iraqi.”

“History, geography, politics have made us part of the country. Instead of erasing history, we’ve said, ‘Let’s try to make this work,’” said Barham Saleh, prime minister of eastern Iraqi Kurdistan. But “if Iraq turns into an Islamic state, or an [Arab] nationalist state we’ll have no way to accept such a country.”

In response, rival political leaders from the south and central regions of the country have threatened to revise the interim constitution dictated by U.S. officials and adopted by the U.S.-installed Iraqi Governing Council, with the aim of taking out supposed guarantees of Kurdish autonomy.

For their part, members of the Kurdish parliament have voted to ignore a section of the interim constitution that they say limits women’s rights.

In spite of the statements by Kurdish leaders, “popular sentiment for full independence appears to be rising,” noted the Journal. Half the population of the region—about 1.75 million Kurds—“have signed a petition demanding a referendum on Kurdish independence,” it reported.

Referring to the borders imposed on the region by the British colonialists, well-known poet Sherko Bekas said, “We were forced to merge with Iraq 83 years ago. Now we want to be free in our own land, like other nations.”

“We don’t have enough printing presses. There’s a huge growth in Kurdish culture,” publisher Badran Habib told the reporters. His company plans to print 150 Kurdish-language books this year, and is preparing a comprehensive dictionary of the Kurdish language.

For years, under the Baathist regime in Baghdad and earlier governments, the Kurds were forbidden to use their language in schools and public places. Kurds forced an end to the ban in 1970, but use of the language was still officially discouraged for another couple of decades.

Of particular worry to the U.S. occupiers and Iraqi politicians, said the Journal, is the push by the Kurdish parties to expand their sphere of influence southwest into Mosul and oil-rich Kirkuk. Both cities have large Kurdish communities. In some cases, Kurds who claim property owned by their families before their expulsion from the areas by the Hussein regime have come into conflict with other residents, including Turkomans, Assyrian Christians, and Arabs.

Last December, said the paper, a Kurdish demonstration chanting, “Kirkuk, Kirkuk, the heart of Kurdistan,” was answered a week later by Arab and Turkoman marchers shouting, “Kirkuk, Kirkuk, an Iraqi city.” At least five people were killed in the latter protests.

Meanwhile, to the north, the Turkish ruling class, an enemy of the Kurdish struggle inside its own borders and across the region, is watching these developments with concern.

Ankara’s aggressive pursuit of its interests in the region brought it closer to a clash with Washington last year, when it moved troops southward to its border with Iraq as the U.S. and British forces began their assault on Iraq. In response, U.S. president George Bush warned the Turkish government to stay out of Iraq. The exchange posed the possibility of a clash between Washington and Ankara, both members of NATO.
 
 
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