Ahli-ahli Peshmerga Kurdish meraikan di
bandar Kirkuk 24 Jun 2014 (Members of the Kurdish Peshmerga celebrate in the
city of Kirkuk June 24, 2014 (Reuters/Ako Rasheed)
bOLLy ENn - Walaupun
tentera Iraq perjuangan untuk mengandungi lebih awal ISIS di barat laut negara
ini, orang Kurdis telah berjaya menolak pemberontak Sunni. Israel kini secara
terbuka menyatakan bahawa sebuah negara Kurdish bebas adalah "kesimpulan
diketepikan."
"Iraq
adalah berpecah di depan mata kita dan ia akan muncul bahawa penciptaan sebuah
negara Kurdish bebas adalah kesimpulan diketepikan," kata Menteri Luar
Israel Avigdor Lieberman kepada Setiausaha Negara Amerika Syarikat John Kerry
kerana kedua-dua dibincangkan krisis Iraq di Paris pada Khamis.
Presiden
Israel Shimon Peres mempunyai mesej yang sama untuk Presiden Amerika Syarikat,
Barack Obama. "Orang Kurdis telah, de facto, yang mencipta negeri mereka
sendiri, yang demokratik. Salah satu tanda-tanda sebuah demokrasi adalah
pemberian kesaksamaan kepada wanita," kata Peres pada hari Rabu.
Walaupun
tentera dari Islam Negeri Iraq dan Levant (ISIS atau ISIL) telah mara ke arah
Baghdad ibu negara, tentera Iraq ditinggalkan di bandar Kirkuk. Orang Kurd
telah merampas huru-hara untuk mengembangkan wilayah utara autonomi mereka
untuk memasukkan bandar strategik.
Selain
sedang dipertimbangkan oleh Kurdis sebagai modal sejarah, Kirkuk duduk atas
deposit minyak yang besar - satu asas kewangan yang stabil bagi apa-apa
kenegaraan mungkin.
"Kirkuk
akhirnya akan menghasilkan minyak untuk orang Kurdis," Muhama Khalil,
kepala Kurdish jawatankuasa ekonomi di parlimen Iraq, memberitahu Guardian.
"Bagi
70 tahun minyak telah digunakan untuk membeli senjata utk membunuh kami.
Akhirnya kita mempunyai minyak sendiri & ia hanya akan menjadi utk orang
Kurdis," katanya.
Orang
Kurdis kini mengawal hab minyak, dan terdapat banyak laporan bahawa mereka
menjual kapal tangki yang penuh dengan minyak ke Israel - sebuah negara yang
jiran-jiran Arab mereka mengekalkan memboikot jualan mentah.
Israel
menyimpan tenang mengenai hubungannya dengan orang Kurdis, yang dipanggil atas
permintaan yang ke-2. Kementerian Luar Israel berkata pada masa ini tidak ada
hubungan diplomatik rasmi dengan orang Kurdis tetapi Eliezer Tsafrir - bekas
ketua stesen Mossad dalam Kurdis Iraq utara - memberitahu Reuters bahawa
"kita akan suka ia menjadi di tempat terbuka, mempunyai kedutaan di sana,
mempunyai hubungan yang normal. Tetapi kita menjaga rahsia kerana itulah yang
mereka mahu."
Israel
mungkin melihat orang Kurd sebagai sekutu semula jadi di rantau Arab yang
didominasi di mana kedua-dua mereka berasa terancam minoriti.
Dalam
satu temu bual dgn CNN, pemimpin Kurdish Massoud Barzani turut mengulas
mengenai kemungkinan sebuah negara yang merdeka, dengan mengatakan bahawa
"Masanya sudah tiba untuk rakyat Kurdistan untuk menentukan masa depan
mereka dan keputusan rakyat adalah apa yang kita akan menegakkan."
ISRAEL
Says DISINTEGRATION in IRAQ may lead to INDEPENDENT Kurdish STATE . . .
While
the Iraqi army struggles to contain the ISIS advance in the country's northwest,
the Kurds have been successful at heading off the Sunni insurgents. Israel has
now openly stated that an independent Kurdish state is a “foregone conclusion.”
"Iraq
is breaking up before our eyes and it would appear that the creation of an
independent Kurdish state is a foregone conclusion," Israeli Foreign
Minister Avigdor Lieberman told US Secretary of State John Kerry as the two
discussed the Iraqi crisis in Paris on Thursday.
Israeli
President Shimon Peres had a similar message for US President Barack Obama.
"The Kurds have, de facto, created their own state, which is democratic.
One of the signs of a democracy is the granting of equality to women,"
Peres said on Wednesday.
While
forces from the Islamist State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS or ISIL) were
advancing towards the capital Baghdad, the Iraqi army abandoned the city of
Kirkuk. The Kurds have seized on the chaos to expand their autonomous northern
territory to include the strategic city.
Besides
being considered by Kurds as their historical capital, Kirkuk sits on vast oil
deposits – a stable financial base for any possible statehood.
"Kirkuk
will finally produce oil for the Kurds," Muhama Khalil, the Kurdish head
of the economic committee in Iraq's national parliament, told the Guardian.
"For
70 years oil has been used to buy weapons to kill us. Finally we have our own
oil and it will only be for the Kurds," he said.
The
Kurds now control the oil hub, and there were numerous reports that they sold a
tanker full of oil to Israel – a country that their Arab neighbors maintain a
boycott of crude sales to.
Israel
keeps quiet about its ties with the Kurds, allegedly at the request of the
latter. Israel's Foreign Ministry said there were currently no formal
diplomatic relations with the Kurds, but Eliezer Tsafrir – a former Mossad
station chief in Kurdish northern Iraq – told Reuters that "we'd love it
to be out in the open, to have an embassy there, to have normal relations. But
we keep it clandestine because that’s what they want.”
The
Israelis may see the Kurds as a natural ally in the Arab-dominated region where
both feel they are threatened minorities.
In
an interview to CNN, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani also commented on the
possibility of an independent state, saying that "The time is here for the
Kurdistan people to determine their future and the decision of the people is
what we are going to uphold."
Presiden Kerajaan Kurdish Serantau
Massoud Barzani (dariKanan) telah bertemu dengan Setiausaha Negara Amerika
Syarikat John Kerry (dariKiri) di Arbil, di Kurdistan rantau Iraq 24 Jun 2014 (Kurdish
Regional Government President Massoud Barzani (R) meets with U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry (L) in Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region June 24, 2014
(Reuters)
Dalam
terbalik untuk dekad kecurigaan, orang Kurdis mungkin mencari negara lain yang
menyokong kebebasan mereka - Turki. Ia kini mempunyai tawaran 50 tahun untuk
menghantar minyak Kurdish oleh saluran paip ke Ceyhan dan telah melabur di rantau
semakin autonomi Kurdis Iraq pada tahun-tahun kebelakangan ini.
Perdana
Menteri Turki Recep Tayyip Erdogan menyuarakan sokongan untuk hak orang Kurdis
'untuk penentuan sendiri. "Orang Kurdis Iraq boleh membuat keputusan untuk
diri mereka sendiri nama dan jenis entiti mereka hidup dalam," kata
Erdogan minggu lepas.
Sementara
itu, Amerika Syarikat menggesa pemimpin Kurdish untuk menyokong Baghdad dlm
menentang ISIS. Washington juga memberi jaminan kpd Kurdis, mereka akan
mengambil bahagian dalam kerajaan Iraq seterusnya.
Beribu-ribu
tahun, majoriti Kurdis - yang adalah orang Iran - telah tinggal di rantau
Kurdistan, kawasan di sepanjang sempadan empat negara Timur Tengah. Sekarang
penduduk Kurdis bertaburan antara Iraq utara, timur Syria, tenggara Turki dan
barat Iran. Mereka berjumlah kira 40 juta orang - membuat orang-orang Kurdis salah
satu kumpulan etnik terbesar di DUNIA tanpa kerajaannya sendiri.
In
a reverse to decades of mistrust, the Kurds might find another country
supporting their independence – Turkey. It now has a 50-year deal to send
Kurdish oil by pipeline to Ceyhan and has been investing in Iraq’s increasingly
autonomous Kurdish region in recent years.
Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced support for the Kurds’ right to
self-determination. “The Kurds of Iraq can decide for themselves the name and
type of entity they are living in,” Erdogan said last week.
Meanwhile,
the US urges Kurdish leaders to support Baghdad in its fight against ISIS.
Washington also assured the Kurds they would participate in the next Iraqi
government.
For
thousands of years, the majority of Kurds – who are an Iranian people – have
lived in the Kurdistan region, an area along the border of four Middle Eastern
countries. Now the Kurdish population is scattered between northern Iraq,
eastern Syria, southeastern Turkey, and western Iran. They total up to 40
million people – making the Kurds one of the world's largest ethnic groups
without its own state.
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