Minority Representation and Reserved Legislative Seats in Iraqi Kurdistan

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-402
Author(s):  
Farhad Hassan Abdullah ◽  
Hawre Hasan Hama
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Quota System ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democratic Stability

Ethnic and religious minorities have played a significant role in the long history of Kurdistan. At an official level, their political position was significantly strengthened with the advent of autonomy for the Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq in 1992. Most importantly, a quota system was established that reserved seats for several minority groups in the Kurdistan Parliament, often cited as an example of tolerance for diversity and respect for minority rights. Nevertheless, there is a lack of empirical research examining how ethnic and religious quotas affect democratic stability, quality of representation, and opportunities to represent authentic interests within the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG). The politicians who occupy the reserved seats have come under criticism for merely supporting the policy programs of the dominant Kurdish parties, which deprives ethnic and religious minority groups of authentic representation and exposes the minority parties to allegations that they are politically exploited. This article analyzes the dynamics of minority political participation in Iraqi Kurdistan, how representation has been affected by the dominance of the ruling parties, and factors that guide the behavior of minority politicians while serving in quota-allocated positions. It also examines the effects of reserving seats through the quota system on the political behavior of minority groups. To these ends, this article focuses on parliamentary quotas and their impact on democratic stability, decision-making, and the empowerment of minority groups in the Kurdistan Region.

scholarly journals COUNTERING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN IRAQI KURDISTAN: STATE-BUILDING AND TRANSNATIONAL ADVOCACY

2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 351-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaniv Voller
Keyword(s):  
Women's Rights ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Women’S Rights ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Transnational Advocacy ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Honor Killings ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Gender Based

AbstractThe struggle against gender-based violence in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region has witnessed some significant achievements since the late 1990s. A subject long excluded from public discourse in the region, it has now moved increasingly into the mainstream, compelling the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to take legal and practical measures against such practices as honor killings, female genital mutilation, and domestic violence. This article traces the sources of these shifts in the KRG's stance, looking especially at the role of transnational women's rights networks in the region. It highlights these networks’ successful strategy of binding their cause to the KRG's endeavor to legitimize and consolidate its contested sovereignty over the Kurdistan Region. In doing so, the paper addresses an underexplored subject in the literature on women's rights campaigns in the Kurdistan Region and contributes to the study of transnational advocacy as a source of normative change.

A Watershed Moment

2020 ◽  
pp. 71-100
Author(s):  
Marcus DuBois King
Keyword(s):  
River System ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Water Conflict ◽  
Euphrates River ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Dam Building ◽  
Changing Demographics ◽  
Political Leverage

Chapter 4 establishes Iraqi Kurdistan as a de-facto riparian actor the Tigris and Euphrates River System explaining that it is blessed with abundant water resources that are now under increasing stress. Changing demographics, dam building in neighbouring countries, and drought have brought Kurdish hydropolitics to a critical juncture where two distinct water futures of abundance or scarcity are possible depending in large part on policy decisions limited by regional security concerns. The chapter problematizes a spectrum of potential water conflict in this context and finds that outbreaks might be sparked by three historical realities: (1) systemic precedence for hydro-hegemonic behaviour—the monopolization of water by a single country—in the Tigris and Euphrates River Basin (2) a record of deployment of the water weapon during contemporary conflicts in Syria and Iraq and (3) conflicting views of ownership and rights to the Tigris and Euphrates river among the riparian countries. Ultimately, the chapter argues that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) must recognize these realities, and use this understanding to develop a comprehensive strategy that will guarantee sufficient water for Iraqi Kurdistan’s people while maintaining the ability to use water as political leverage in support of designs toward autonomy or, more altruistically, to improve the quality of life for all Iraqis.

scholarly journals Iraqi Kurdistan Oil and Gas Sector: Iraqi and International Dimensions

2020 ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Qadir Aso Araz
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Oil And Gas Industry ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Legal Basis ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Gas Industry ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
International Aspects ◽  
Oil And Gas Sector

The article deals with the problem of the influence of the Iraqi Kurdistan oil and gas industry on the relations of the Kurdish autonomy with the central authority of Iraq. The international aspects of extraction and transportation of hydrocarbons from the territory of the Kurdistan Region are also analyzed. The legal basis for the functioning of the oil and gas complex in the region, the main differences between Erbil and Baghdad regarding the powers of the Kurdish regional government in the field of exploitation of natural resources of the autonomy is represented. It has been established that the independent activity of the Iraqi Kurdistan authorities in the development of the oil and gas industry in its territory, the wide involvement of foreign investment provided autonomy a significant source of income, which became the financial backing of Erbil in his political disputes with Baghdad. At the same time, in the question of the transportation of hydrocarbon, the landlocked Iraqi Kurdistan was critically dependent on Turkey, which greatly limits its range of options in its relations with Ankara. Excessive dependence of the Iraqi Kurdistan economy on hydrocarbon exports is one of the strategic challenges for Kurdish autonomy, but significant positive developments in this area are possible only in the long-term perspective. Keywords: Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan, Kurdish autonomy, Turkey, oil and gas industry.

scholarly journals Subsurface tectonic characterizations by the use of geo-electrical resistivity technique and their implications on environmental soil and groundwater at Erbil dumpsite, west of Erbil city – Iraqi Kurdistan region

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirwa Qader Smail Gardi ◽  
Jamal Asfahani
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Resistivity ◽  
Groundwater Table ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Study Region ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Subsurface Structures ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Geological Information ◽  
Exact Position

Abstract Twenty seven vertical electrical resistivity soundings (VES), distributed on three profiles, have been carried out around the Erbil city dumpsite location in northern Iraq, by using Schlumberger configuration. The main objective of those VES soundings is to characterize the subsurface structures and to detect the probable soil contamination zones at the dumpsite and the surrounding district. Bai Hassan aquifer in the study region is one of most important natural fresh water in the central sub-basin of Erbil. The 2D Pichgin and Habibulleav technique is applied herein to study and analyse the three VES profiles. Its application in the study region has highly demonstrated the efficacy of such a technique. In fact, the subsurface structures in the study area have been recognized, and the exact position, dip, direction of the faults and groundwater level were also precisely detected. The role of applying this technique together with the available geological information, while carrying out geo-electrical surveys is emphasized to obtain useful, cheap and fast lithological, groundwater table and structural subsurface information.

The Failed Ba'thification of Iraqi Kurdistan: The Ideological and Organizational Strategies of the Ba'th Party in Northern Iraq, 1968–2003

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 407-427
Author(s):  
Ruiheng Li
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Strategies ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Organizational Perspective ◽  
History Of

Drawing on internal party documents, this article analyzes the history of Ba'thification efforts in Iraqi Kurdistan. Despite a growing literature on the Ba'th Party's ruling strategy, the often-overlooked Arabization of Kurdish communities constituted a significant ideological component of Ba'thification. From an organizational perspective, the cultivation of internal intelligence networks was used to compensate for the challenges associated with robust party recruitment in northern Iraq's Kurdish-majority governorates and among Kurdish communities in mixed areas.

Salafism, Sectarianism, and National Identity in Iraqi Kurdistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 75 (3) ◽  
pp. 386-406
Author(s):  
Pishtiwan Jalal ◽  
Ariel I. Ahram
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
National Identity ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
History Of

This article examines the history of Salafism within the Kurdistan Region of Iraq using interviews, archives, social media, and an online survey. Despite Salafism and nationalism generally being seen as rival political ideologies, Kurdish Salafis have over the last decade increasingly linked their sectarian struggle to the Kurdish ethno-nationalist cause. Such efforts provide new understandings both of Salafism and of Kurdish nationalism while also potentially destabilizing the alliance between Kurdish nationalist and Shi'i sectarian parties that has governed Iraq since 2003.

MICHAEL M. GUNTER, The Kurdish Predicament in Iraq: A Political Analysis (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999), Pp. 191. $39.95 cloth.

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 331-332
Author(s):  
NADER ENTESSAR
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
English Language ◽  
Gulf War ◽  
Regional Government ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
Political Analysis ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Democratic Elections

This work is a follow-up to Michael Gunter's earlier book, The Kurds of Iraq: Tragedy and Hope (St. Martin's Press, 1992). In that book, which was published shortly after the first democratic elections in Iraqi Kurdistan and the subsequent establishment of the Kurdish regional government (KRG), Gunter was somewhat optimistic about the prospects for realizing Kurdish national aspirations in Iraq. The book under review, however, strikes a more pessimistic tone based on political developments in Iraqi Kurdistan in the 1990s. The main focus of the book is on the causes of continuing conflict between the two major Iraqi Kurdish parties—namely, the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)—since the end of the 1991 Gulf War and the establishment of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. The author uses a variety of sources, including interviews with principal Kurdish players and English-language publications.

scholarly journals Iraqi protests of 2019-2020: the perspective of Baghdad and Erbil

2020 ◽  
pp. 35-41
Author(s):  
Swara Shakali
Keyword(s):  
Present State ◽  
Central Government ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Arab Population ◽  
Northern Iraq ◽  
The Core ◽  
Iraqi Kurdistan ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
High Level

This article is dedicated to examination of mass protests that unfolded in Iraq since the second half of 2019 until the beginning of 2020 and involved even northern part of the country (with prevailing Kurdish population). The core demand of protesters in the Arab part of the country consisted in amendment of the existing administrative system (“Muhasasa"), which issued quotas for the representatives of ethnic and religious groups of the country (Shiite and Sunni Arabs, and Kurds). Separate protests were also recorded in the Iraqi Kurdistan. The novelty of this research consists in examination of Iraqi protests at the present state, as well as from the perspective of relations between the central government of Iraq and Kurdish Autonomy. The conclusion is made that the key factor of protests consists in dissatisfaction of population with the quality of rendered services, low effectiveness of government apparatus, and high level of corruption. Although there is no direct correlation between protests in northern and southern parts of the country, the very fact of disturbances among the Kurds testifies to the existence social tension in northern Iraq. Theoretically, neglecting the demands of Arab population may lead to the proliferation of protests across the country.

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