Good Neighbors
By Tanya Goudsouzian • Jun 1st, 2010Last month, it was announced that the Iraqi Kurdistan Region would export oil at a rate of 100,000 barrels a day through Turkey. This was initially announced in June 2009, but the process was delayed by Baghdad. The KRG plans for oil exports from Kurdistan Region to reach 250,000 barrels per day by 2011. At a recent conference, the KRG’s Minister for Natural Resources, Ashti Hawarami, announced that the KRG would launch a new project to construct a pipeline that would pump 1 million barrels of oil to neighboring states.
Most high-level Iraqi Kurdish officials will readily admit that the key to their future lies in maintaining positive relations with Turkey and also with Iran, which already has a consulate in Erbil. As such, disputes and disappointments of the past are being put aside.
The establishment of official Turkish diplomatic representation underscores the headway that has been made in transcending these political tensions and building upon the fruitful commercial relations that have characterized the relationship in recent years. The Iranians have had offices in the Kurdish region’s two main cities Erbil and Suleimaniyeh for many years, but following the unification of the two Kurdish administrations in 2006 and Erbil’s designation as the region’s capital, the Iranians opened an official consulate in Erbil.
The Kurdish street.
However, while the politicians are being pragmatic in order to preserve stability and enhance economic relations, the Kurdish masses are finding it much harder to forget their grievances with neighboring Turkey.
Many on the Iraqi-Kurdish street are dismayed by what they perceived as Turkey backtracking on some of its promises to the Kurds in Turkey, notably when Turkey’s Constitutional Court voted unanimously to shut down the DTP, the only pro-Kurdish party in the Turkish Parliament, in December 2009.
“Turkey is an important neighbor and country. It has helped us in the past. Being neighbors, it’s normal to have issues and difference of opinion. But the important thing is we have seen a drastic change in relations with Turkey,” Bakir says. “We have always stated we are friends with Turkey and seek good neighborly relations based on mutual benefit and understanding.”
