Kurds cannot only act in their interest

Too often, Iraq’s Kurds act as if the problems of Iraq have nothing to do with them and their region

Kurdish peshmergas took control of Kirkuk in June when Iraqi government forces fled and abandoned the oil city following the Islamic State's capture of Mosul. Yahya Ahmad / Reuters

The threat posed by the Islamic State group hardly needs to be restated. For weeks, they have swept through parts of Iraq and Syria, creating chaos of medieval proportions – a fitting description, given their barbaric behaviour and warped interpretation of Islam. And yet, until this week, the Iraqi Kurds acted as if the threat to Iraq had nothing to do with them.

When the Islamic State captured Mosul in June, Iraqi government forces fled and abandoned the oil city of Kirkuk. Kurdish peshmergas took control and the Kurdish leadership went so far as to declare that they would not relinquish the disputed city again. Another Kurdish official declared “Iraq is not our neighbour”, as if the state of Iraq had nothing to do with them.

How things change. In the past few days, the Islamic State moved into Kurdish territory, and, this time, the peshmergas fled. Now, Nouri Al Maliki – Iraq’s caretaker prime minister, for now – has sent the Iraqi military north to aid the Kurds as they seek to re-take the lost territory.

Mr Al Maliki’s actions are welcome but long overdue. He has been too sectarian in his agenda, refusing to address the grievances of the Iraqi Sunnis. At the same time, though, this push by the Islamic State is a wake-up call for Iraq’s Kurds. Yes, the community wishes to have its own homeland. But it still needs Iraq, whether it remains in the same state or as a neighbour.

Too often the Kurds have sought to ignore their Iraqi brethren in favour of their own expediency. They have bypassed the central government in Baghdad to sell oil through Turkey. Both the US and Iraq rightly condemned that as a violation of Baghdad’s sovereignty – with Iraq going so far as to call it “theft” and threatening to sue anyone who bought it.

The same has happened this week with a request from the Kurdish region for US weapons to fight the Islamic State. Once again, Baghdad has accused the Kurds of seeking to bypass the central government. Despite Mr Al ­Maliki’s failings, the government in Baghdad is necessary to keep Iraq together. For now, Iraq’s Kurds must put Iraq first.