Self-determination between the First World and the Third World (a comparative study)

Prepared by Dr. Ali Rahim Taima

Introduction:

The term self-determination in international law means giving the local people or people the possibility to decide what form of power they want and how to achieve it freely and without outside interference.

Whereas self-determination is a right granted by international conventions and international constitutions by granting the freedom to decide a group or group that enjoys a particular religion, belief, nationality, language, sex or skin color...... etc. in establishing a system of government to organize their social life according to what serves their aspirations and tendencies without being dependent on another country that dictates its own laws and controls and opposes their will and freedoms.

Not long ago, the world witnessed a series of attempts at self-determination, especially what is happening recently of many attempts to secession, some of which were successful, such as the attempt to self-determination for South Sudan, and others were written on them not to succeed because of the lack of appropriate conditions and premises that serve the process of self-determination, especially the approval of the international community (the great and active countries in the world), such as the attempt to separate Northern Ireland from the United Kingdom of Britain, and another attempt, such as the attempt of separatists in Somalia and the Polisario group in the Maghreb.... Etc.

The process of self-determination is a difficult process to labor for the birth of a new system of government that is removed from the mother state because the mother state does not easily sacrifice its child as an integral part of it, knowing that most of these groups that intend to secede or self-determination have suffered many countries that were organized under their sovereignty because these groups do not feel their belonging to those countries and that these countries in return did not give them full freedom to organize their affairs in addition to economic exploitation Correctness of characterization.

Among the attempts that sought self-determination in the first world was the attempt to separate the region of Catalonia from the Kingdom of Spain, and in the third world the attempt to separate the Kurdistan region from the Republic of Iraq, but these attempts were unsuccessful, but the way the central government dealt with the two worlds with the two attempts were different according to the political awareness of both countries.

First World (Catalonia)

1.   Geographical and economic location of Catalonia:

Catalonia is a region located in the northeast of the Iberian Peninsula (Spain) and represents the gateway of the Iberian Peninsula to the European continent (fig. 1). It is self-governing and its capital is the city of Barcelona.

Catalonia is divided into four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona. The legislature is represented in the Parliament of Catalonia, has a flag and a national anthem for the region, and its people speak a different language from the rest of Spain. It also has its own police and controls the majority of its public services.

The region has several sources of wealth, as Catalonia is the most economic, tourist and industrial areas, it provides about a third of the Spanish industrial output, and the city of Barcelona is one of the most important seaports on the Mediterranean Sea and has a coast teeming with tourists from different regions of the world, and it is the center of the third largest Spanish bank (La Caixa Bank), in addition to the headquarters of the giant natural gas company, which has the official headquarters of more than 800 companies and Catalonia is the richest region in Spain and contributes about a quarter of the total exports country.

The nature of the system of government in the region:

The autonomous government of the region of Catalonia consists of the Executive Council of Catalonia (Generals de Catalunya)

It is the body that regulates the inclusive political system of government in Catalonia (fig. 2), including sub-municipalities and courts, not just the executive organs of government. This body consists of the Parliament of Catalonia (135 deputies, elected by universal suffrage by Catalan citizens), the President of the Government of Catalonia.

 The local government in Catalonia has broad and exclusive powers in matters such as culture, environment, communications, transport, commerce and public safety, and handles most of the police and security functions previously carried out by the Civil Guard and the Spanish National Police.  It shares its powers with the central government in Madrid in education, health and justice.

Preparing for the separation process (logistically politically and internationally)

The beginning of the process of preparing for secession through civil and political activists calling for secession and some of the Catalan people, by distributing posters, posters calling for the independence referendum on bus and metro stations, writing on some walls, holding seminars and dialogues in youth centers and clubs for the purpose of promoting the referendum.

Here the news began to reach the central government, which warned the government of Catalonia of the consequences of proceeding on the path of the referendum and the dire consequences that will befall the region of Catalonia, including began to impose high fines of up to 50 thousand euros on the printing presses that print any poster or poster calling for secession and began here the first stages of boiling between the region and the government of the center and here began the first sparks of anger where activists and supporters of secession began to put stools and posters at night for fear of financial fines, where it was The author of the article notices when going to university (even in an elevator).

Among other measures taken by Madrid is to authorize the head of the Spanish government to file an urgent appeal in its name before the Constitutional Court, against the decision of the Parliament of Catalonia and the decree of its government, claiming that they violated the constitution. The constitution gives the central government in Madrid the right to compel the local government in Catalonia to withdraw the referendum.

Here came the response of the Constitutional Court of Spain on September 12, 2017, stressing that the ballot is illegal because it considered that this referendum contradicts the Constitution of Spain 1978.

 But the president of the region of Catalonia, Carles Puigdemont, confirmed his intention to hold the poll on time (photo 3), and issued a statement in which he clarified that "we will not hold elections in polling stations such as schools and institutes built with Madrid money, but we will hold our referendum in our schools that we built with Catalan money."

The prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Catalonia then ordered the Catalan police, the Civil Guard and the National Police Authority to storm the polling stations to prevent the elections from taking place.

As a precautionary measure, thousands of Spanish police were sent from Madrid to the region with the aim of preventing any movement by holding the referendum and seizing polling stations. Upon the arrival of the Spanish police regiments in Barcelona, Carles Puigdemont, the head of the Catalan government, addressed the Spanish police, in which he said: "I do not think anyone will use violence or incite violence, and he called on them to act in a professional capacity and not in a political manner.

Puigdemont also confirmed during his meeting with representatives of the educational centers where the polling stations will be held and said we will go to the end, noting that he and his government bear full responsibility for organizing the vote despite all the warnings expressed by the central government in the event of a light in the vote

4. Referendum Day and Beyond: Secession of Catalonia and Declaration of Independence

After the arrival of thousands of Spanish police to the region of Catalonia and the change of the director of the police of the city of Barcelona (according to an order issued by the Spanish Prime Minister), many patrols of the Spanish police and riot police began to roam the areas of the city, especially near the polling stations, when the government of Catalonia sent notices to the population asking them to protect the polling stations, so the pro-secession Catalans occupied schools to avoid their closure by the Spanish authorities and they continued to occupy them until the morning of the referendum.

The Public Prosecution Office issued an order to collect the names of everyone who participated in the vote, the relevant documents would be confiscated, and anyone who had the keys to enter the polling station would be considered complicit in the crimes of disobedience, offenses and theft of money

On October 1, 2017, a referendum for the independence of Catalonia was organized within the region of Catalonia, the results of which the Spanish authorities refused to recognize, and the confrontation began between the police forces who are trying to prevent citizens from casting their votes, whether by closing the doors of schools or seizing the ballot boxes and voter name registers, and finally using force (batons) to beat and disperse the voters participating in the referendum which led to the injury of dozens.

Shocked Catalans of these scenes quoted by the media, which showed the cruelty of the police towards the people of the region of Catalonia and these incidents had negative consequences on citizens rejecting independence from the people of Catalonia and the shock was that citizens began to express their rejection of these measures to go out on the balconies of their homes and knock on the balustrade every day at eight o'clock in the evening for 10 minutes to express their rejection of this brutality towards the participants in the vote on secession.

 A week after the referendum, specifically on October 27, 2017, the Parliament of Catalonia announced the separation of the region from Spain by a vote of 70 to 10, with which Catalonia can reinvest the tax money it sends to the government of Madrid, which is equivalent to 9% of GDP, which causes very negative effects on the Spanish economy and its instability, so that the capital, Madrid, revised its growth forecast in 2018 from 2.6 to 2.3% of GDP. Where Catalonia contributed 19% of Spain's GDP, very slightly ahead of Madrid's contribution of 18.9%, to become the region seeking secession as the richest Spanish region, and is fourth in terms of measuring GDP per capita by 28,600 euros, compared to an average of 24,000 euros in Spain, behind Madrid, the Basque Country, and Lannavare. At the same time, the declaration of separation had a negative economic impact on Catalonia, where the Spanish Minister of Economy explained, that Catalonia in the event of its independence will be outside the European Union, and will witness a decline in its gross product by between 25 and 30% and a decrease in tax revenues paid by companies leaving the capital of the region Barcelona to Madrid and other Spanish regions, because what the world of finance and business fears most is instability.  Investment in the region will no longer be feasible if it separates because of its small market, which has no more than 7.5 million consumers, compared to a Spanish and European market with more than 500 million consumers. This means that the separation of the industrially developed region will deprive local and European companies operating in it of the advantage of producing and selling in the large market, and this will push them to emigrate. If that happens, tens, even hundreds of thousands, of Catalans will lose their jobs and livelihoods.

In addition to the decline in tourism, which causes an increase in unemployment due to the instability of the situation that results from the declaration of independence image 7.Brussels will also refrain from accepting Catalonia in the European Union because of the categorical Spanish rejection supported by France, Italy, Germany and most of the European continent. The central government in Madrid also questioned the percentage of supporters of secession and that most of the ballot boxes were confiscated by the police. Poigdemont got up and asked the supporters of secession to go out in demonstrations at 8 pm starting from one of the old and famous streets in Barcelona (Grand Crassia Street) towards the famous Plaza Catalunya with a candle and here when the media filmed these demonstrations with very large crowds, Poigdemont said that 90 percent of the Catalan people support secession and these demonstrations prove that according to the various media and they reject the decisions of the central government .In response to the declaration of secession, the Spanish Senate voted in an unprecedented step to activate Article 155 of the constitution, which allows the central government to suspend autonomy in Catalonia and impose direct rule on it, and the vote came with 214 votes in favor, 47 against and one abstention.

Later, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, held an emergency meeting of the Spanish government Photo 8, following which he announced that the government had begun taking action in response to Catalonia's declaration of secession:

1-  The dissolution of Catalonia's regional government, the first of its kind since the adoption of the constitution in 1978, as a measure to thwart the independence campaign and assuage fears of economic turmoil and problems in the heart of the eurozone.

2-  The central government in Madrid took full control of the government, police and state media headquarters in the region and suspended the powers of the regional parliament for six months until early elections were held in Catalonia.

3-  Spanish authorities arrested the heads of Catalonia's two most prominent separatist organizations, Jordi Sanchez, who leads the Association of the Catalan National Assembly, and Jordi Cochart, who leads a pro-independence cultural movement.

4-  On the other hand, Catalan police chief Josep Luis Trapero complied with the Spanish judiciary in Madrid to be questioned on charges of disobedience and not preventing the holding of the banned referendum. Despite prosecutors' requests to detain him pending trial, the court allowed him to leave without detaining him.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told council members that direct rule was needed to restore "law, democracy and stability" to Catalonia and that there was little prospect of escalating the crisis into armed conflict, but that it would damage the Spanish economy and possibly cause crises in the euro zone. The Spanish prime minister also said he had not stripped Catalonia of autonomy but was returning "the region to the rule of law because the actions of the local government "go against the law and seek confrontation."

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont rejected the Spanish government's measures, saying in a televised address that they were "incompatible with democratic behaviour and do not respect the rule of law". The regional parliament also described the measures as a "coup", and the speaker of the Catalan parliament said in a speech to her colleagues that the Spanish prime minister "carried out a coup to end the powers of parliamentarians".

On October 14, 2019, the Spanish Supreme Court ruled on a number of decisions, including:

1-  Nine of Catalonia's separatist leaders have been jailed for between nine and 13 years for inciting rebellions for their role in the region's failed bid for independence Photo 9.

2-  The court sentenced the former vice president of the region, Oriol Gonqueras, to 13 years in prison for incitement and misuse of public funds.

3-  Twelve people have also been prosecuted for their actions in Catalonia's bid to secede from Spain after an illegal independence referendum.

Absent from the trials was the key figure in the secession attempt, former Catalan President Carlos Puigdemont, who fled to Belgium, and will be the biggest absentee from this trial, as Spain does not try in absentia those accused of serious misdemeanors.

On 23/06/2021, the Spanish authorities released nine leaders of Catalan separatists who were granted amnesty by government decisions, in a move that Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said represented a gesture of reconciliation, allowing the start of a new phase of dialogue and ending the state of division and clash between the central and regional authorities.

Kurdistan Region Independence Referendum and its Results

The word Kurdistan consists of two parts, the first of which is "Kurd" in relation to the Kurdish people, and the second part is "Stan" meaning home or place. The Kurds are an ethnic minority found in three countries Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

The name "Kurdistan", which translates to "land of Kurds", was first documented in Seljuk records in the eleventh century and the Ottoman Empire used the term "Kurdistan" to refer to an administrative unit rather than a geographical area. Kurdistan is a mountainous region with natural boundaries.

 The term Kurdistan covers a large part of the Near East: the northern regions of Iraq, Syria and the entire West Iran from north to south up to the Persian Gulf and the entire eastern and central parts of the Republic of Turkey and sometimes the western regions of the Republic of Armenia and Georgia are also included in this geographical land.

Iraqi Kurds are concentrated in Sulaymaniyah Governorate, Erbil Governorate, Kirkuk Governorate, Dohuk Governorate, Sinjar and Akre areas of Nineveh Governorate. As well as in the Khanaqin and Mandali areas of Diyala province, where they border the Kurds of Iran to the west of the Zakros Mountains, as well as in the Badra and Jasan areas of Wasit province. The number of Iraqi Kurds is estimated at about five million and two hundred thousand people.

The system of government in the Kurdistan Region

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is the executive authority for decisions enacted by the Kurdistan National Council of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (Parliament). The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was formed in 1992 by the Kurdistan National Assembly (Parliament), the first democratically elected parliament in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq (Fig. 11) after the establishment of a no-fly zone to protect the Kurds from airstrikes by the former Iraqi regime in 1991. The National Council of Kurdistan consists of: the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Toilers Party, the Kurdistan Socialist Party, the Kurdistan Islamic Union, the Kurdistan Communist Party, the Islamic Group and the Turkmen Brotherhood Party. The presidency of the region belongs to the Kurdistan Democratic Party while the presidency of Iraq goes to the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. The current Kurdistan Regional Government consists of 27 ministries and there are 9 ministers without portfolio, and its center is the city of Erbil "Hawler".

The main languages of the region are Kurdish and Arabic, and the official currency is the Iraqi dinar.

Economy of Iraqi Kurdistan

The Kurdistan economy is characterized by heavy dependence, directly or indirectly, on the oil sector as well as agriculture and tourism.  Given the relative security and peace of the region, more liberal policies and an economic market, its economy is more developed compared to other parts of Iraq. The relative security and stability of the region allowed the KRG to sign a number of investment contracts with foreign companies: in 2006, the first oil well in the Kurdistan region was drilled by the Norwegian energy company DNO. The KRG currently has four special economic zones, in Dohuk, Batifa, Shaqlawa and Chamchamal that are mainly for the manufacture of hydrocarbons, pharmaceuticals, packaged food and processed foods. These include the largest Coca-Cola bottling plant in the Middle East outside Egypt, Israel and the GCC. It is the largest ice cream production center in Iraq and Syria combined. But despite all the economic privileges, the main problems facing the region remain: a closed region surrounded by countries unsympathetic to Kurdish aspirations such as Turkey and Iran and others in conflict such as Syria and the rest of Iraq. There are disputed areas between the KRG and Iraq's central government, including oil-rich Kirkuk, which is home to a mix of ethnic groups, mainly Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs.

The dream of independence and the state of Kurdistan

At the turn of the twentieth century, Kurdish elites began to think about establishing an independent state, called Kurdistan. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, the victorious Western Allies envisioned a Kurdish state in the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920. It stipulated the achievement of solving the Kurdish problem in stages, and if the Kurds pass these stages, and demand independence, and the Allied countries see the eligibility of the Kurds, so independence becomes a reality, and the Turkish government must recognize this... This is the first official international recognition of the rights of the Kurdish people, especially the right to self-determination, as the issue was raised in the legal custom of international treaties, Kemal Ataturk described the treaty as a death sentence against Turkey, and tried by various means to put obstacles to prevent the application of the treaty. However, these hopes were dashed three years later, following the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, which set the current borders of the State of Turkey, in a way that does not allow the existence of a Kurdish state because the Treaty of Lausanne stipulated that Ankara would pledge to grant most of the population of Turkey full and complete protection, and to grant freedoms without discrimination, without any reference to the Kurds in it, nor was there any reference to the Treaty of Sèvres, and the Kurds considered this treaty a severe blow against their future and shattered their hopes... The Allies thus bear full moral responsibility to the Kurdish people, particularly the British government, which later annexed Mosul to Iraq.

Over the next eighty years, any Kurdish attempt to establish an independent state or autonomy was crushed

Disadvantages and benefits of separation

After Mustafa Kemal Ataturk announced the birth of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the stage of pressure began on the Kurds of Turkey, preventing the teaching of the Kurdish language in schools and institutes, and preventing it from being spoken in government departments and even the streets. Four years later, the Kurds declared the independent Kurdish Republic of Ararat, and Turkish Kurds sent letters to the Kurds of Syria and Iraq to cooperate with them, but this weak republic was soon eliminated in 1930 by the Turkish army. In 1946, the Kurds of Iran succeeded in announcing the birth of the People's Democratic Republic of Mahabad by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iran, but it quickly collapsed after about 10 months due to weak Soviet support and lack of international approval for this republic.

As for the Kurds in Iraq, they enjoyed civilian privileges compared to the Kurds living in neighboring countries:

Kurds in northern Iraq revolted against British rule during the Mandate, but were suppressed. In 1946, Mullah Mustafa Barzani founded the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) with the aim of gaining autonomy in the Kurdistan Region. After the 1958 revolution, the interim constitution recognized Kurdish nationalism as a major nationality and considered Kurds as partners in the homeland with Arabs and other minorities, but Kurdish leader Mustafa Barzani declared armed combat in 1961.

In 1970, the Baath-led government offered the Kurds an end to the fighting and give them an autonomous region. But the agreement collapsed and fighting resumed in 1974, and at the end of the seventies, the government began settling Arabs in some areas to change the demographics, especially around the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. It has also forcibly resettled Kurds in some areas. After Iraq's loss in the 1991 Gulf War, a massive uprising erupted in southern Iraq and the Kurdistan region, and due to the intensity of the state's suppression of this uprising, the United States and its allies imposed a no-fly zone on northern Iraq, allowing the Kurds to enjoy autonomy. The Kurdistan region has armed forces called the Peshmerga (Fig. 12), which corresponds in Arabic to "fedayeen" are Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq, and the Peshmerga forces grew with the expansion of the Kurdish nationalist movement and the declaration of the revolution in the early sixties, and became part of the general Kurdish identity, to defend national rights and demand their expansion. The Peshmerga went into war with Iraqi government forces at various stages, and its factions engaged in infighting between Kurdish factions at other stages. Officially it is part of the Iraqi Defense Units.

After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the region had an opportunity to remove recognition of its territory from the Iraqi parliament, which was the case in the Iraqi constitution, which was popularly adopted in 2005, and allocated 17% of the state budget to the region. It ended up with a special status for the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, slightly less than independence, and little more than autonomy, and bearing the current name: the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, which now has a flag, a constitution, a national anthem, a government, an army (Peshmerga), a parliament and diplomatic representative offices in Iraqi embassies.

When Jalal Talabani was elected president of Iraq and Masoud Barzani was elected president of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Kurdish hope for self-determination grew.

Article 140 (whose provisions expire in 2007) of the permanent Iraqi constitution has established a mechanism to resolve the matter, but this article has not been activated despite the passage of twelve years.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish regions of Iraq witnessed a previous referendum inJanuary 2005, and the percentage of voters for independence exceeded 98.19%, but the Kurds did not take any step towards independence waiting for the appropriate circumstance, and the right opportunity came for the President of the Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, to hold a referendum.

The war against ISIS is a convenient opportunity for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces to expand and impose a fait accompli on the ground in the disputed areas, including Kirkuk (Fig. 13), despite the objections of the Turkmen and Arab components, and other smaller components in the Nineveh Plains.

The official spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party, Mahmoud Mohammed, said that the regional authorities decided to hold the independence referendum not only within the official borders of the Kurdistan region, but also in all areas under the control of the Peshmerga (Kirkuk and Nineveh) and voters will have to answer a question:

Do you want the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdistan regions outside the administration of the Region to become an independent state?

Voting papers will be printed in Kurdish, Arabic, Turkmen and Syriac .

This led to mixed reactions of countries to this step, an adventure with uncalculated results, as the referendum involves political risk full of caveats and risks. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson phoned President Massoud Barzani by phone, expressing Washington's desire to postpone the referendum and its support for the continuation of talks and negotiations between the region and Baghdad. At the time, the presidency of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq said that the Kurdish people would go ahead with the referendum on the region's independence. The United States also does not hide its sympathy for the Kurdish dream, and considers the Kurds in Iraq and Syria the best allies, but the Trump administration has confirmed what previous administrations have already committed to in adhering to the unity of Iraq. Notably, immediately after the referendum boxes in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq closed, the U.S. State Department issued a statement expressing "deep disappointment" at Erbil's insistence on holding the referendum and fearing that the referendum would divert attention from "other, more urgent priorities" such as defeating the Islamic State. Fearing the possibility of filling the vacuum by Russia, Turkey and Iran, after the expulsion of ISIS from Iraq and Syria. Turkey, Iran and Syria, all of which are populated by large Kurdish populations, also oppose Kurdistan's independence from Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi also said that holding a referendum now will not be in the interest of neither the Kurds nor Iraq because holding a referendum at this time is not right, because the war is still ongoing, the situation in the region is not stable, and some neighboring countries believe that this step represents a threat to their national security. Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said during a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York: "The Iraqi government, by virtue of its responsibility, demanded the Federal Supreme Court to issue a state order rejecting the referendum process to be held in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which constitutes a major violation and violation of the Iraqi constitution, especially with regard to the status of the disputed areas."

It is worth noting that the UN Security Council expressed its opposition to the referendum on independence that the Kurdistan Region of Iraq intends to organize, warning that this unilateral step would destabilize, reiterating its attachment to the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Iraq.

Central Government Actions in Baghdad and Regional Countries

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has faced wide international and regional opposition since announcing a referendum to secede from Iraq, as repercussions on neighboring countries fuel Kurdish separatist tendencies in other countries in the Middle East, which could cause an escalation of security tensions in the entire region.

 This coincides with the emergence of some trends that favor the central government in Baghdad and Kurdistan competing for control of Kirkuk, an oil-rich region, making it a potential starting point for the conflict.

Similarly, the central government in Baghdad called on the international community not to deal with the regional government unilaterally with regard to the sale of oil on international markets in a way that could lead to the freezing of the region's main oil exports to the world, which may be acceptable to the various international powers that have so far supported the policy of a united Iraq towards the issue of the independence of Kurdistan.

The central government also asked neighboring Iran and Turkey to close its airspace to the Kurdistan region to limit the achievement of political and economic independence for the region if the referendum is passed, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that «this referendum is a fire that will burn from its kindling», and stressed that those who insisted on holding it for the sake of his interests will not be able to confront the countries of the region in the future, Barzani decided to hold a new referendum mostly with the intention of separation and independence this time. The Turkish president also vowed to pay a heavy price to Kurdish leaders, saying that "his country provided all kinds of support to the authorities of the Kurdistan region of Iraq, but insisted on organizing the referendum, which he described as a false step."  On October 2, 2017, a Turkish newspaper announced that Ankara would send 12,000 troops to northern Iraq. Russia did not condemn the referendum on the independence of Iraqi Kurdistan, calling only through its Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, to "achieve the legitimate aspirations of the Kurds, like other peoples, within the framework of the provisions of international law." In conjunction with the referendum, Rosneft, Russia's largest oil company, financed the construction of a gas pipeline from the region to Turkey with a capacity of more than 30 billion cubic meters per year. This Russian approach has several objectives, one of which is related to competing for American influence in the Middle East by trying to acquire one of Washington's most important allies in Iraq. Russia also believes that the growth of the relationship with the Kurds will give it a new playground for maneuver with Turkey, especially if we know how Moscow invested its close relationship with the Kurds of Turkey and Syria, as a bargaining chip with Ankara in the Syrian file. The prime minister of the usurping Zionist entity, Benjamin Netanyahu, was clear not only in his support for the referendum, but also in that "the Kurdish people have a state," a position he conveyed to the US Congress, saying, "It is necessary for the Kurds in Iraq to have an independent state, they are a brave and heroic people, and they are friends of the West and Western values... and our friends." An official source in the Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Kuwait's principled position in support of a unified Iraq with its independence, sovereignty, security and stability. Finally, on 21 September, the Security Council, with the unanimous vote of its fifteen members, expressed its opposition to the independence referendum, warning that "this unilateral step would destabilize, as the Council renews its attachment to the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Iraq". Twenty-four hours before the date of the referendum, the Iraqi government demanded that the Kurdistan region hand over border crossings and airports, and demanded that foreign countries not deal with the region, as Iran, Egypt and the Lebanese Middle East Airlines took the initiative to ban all flights with Iraqi Kurdistan at the request of the Baghdad government, then the response came with the refusal of the Kurdistan region, represented by Nechirvan Barzani, to hand over the border crossings to the central government of Baghdad. On September 29, 2017, Iran banned the transfer of petroleum products to and from the Kurdistan Region, due to Tehran's pledge to help Baghdad counter the Kurdish referendum. The Iraqi parliament also voted on several resolutions, including suspending the membership of Kurdish deputies, and the Central Bank of Iraq notified the Kurdistan Regional Government that it "will stop selling dollars to the four main Kurdish banks and stop all foreign currency transfers to the autonomous region. Iraqi and Iranian forces on the one hand and the Turkish army (photo 16) on the other held joint military exercises near the border, in order to support Baghdad against the referendum on the secession of Iraqi Kurdistan.

After all

The referendum, which Barzani insisted on holding despite numerous local, regional and international objections and warnings, had many results at all levels, but in general it did not achieve its desired goals.

The separation threatens the collapse of the region's economy, whose arteries are linked to countries opposed to this step, such as Turkey, Iraq and Iran, which consider it a threat to their national security, which puts the region's officials in front of difficult repercussions, represented in the strangulation of oil, which is still the main resource for Kurdistan, as well as the movement of trade with neighboring countries and their investments in many fields, especially since the region's debts reached about (20) billion dollars, at a time when its budget is greatly affected by oil prices, whose revenues constitute about 90% of them. Iraq will not lose anything economically from the secession of the Kurdistan region because there are no branches of companies manufacturing cars, heavy machinery, manufacturing electrical appliances, or even producing wheat and barley, which is not enough for even its inhabitants. On the contrary, the 17% portion of the budget that goes as a share to the region will be invested in the rest of the other governorates.

After the regional government fell between the jaws of pincers, as it was subjected to great pressure from the Iraqi government, most notably the budget reduction, it decided to conclude an agreement between the Kurdistan Government and the central government to the effect that the Federal Supreme Court would issue its final decision on canceling the results of the referendum held in the Kurdistan region of Iraq and the disputed areas, and all the consequences of that referendum, and that the authority in the Kurdistan region would comply with the court's decision and declare its commitment to the cancellation decision, and on November 20, 2017, the court issued The Iraqi Supreme Federation decided on the unconstitutionality of the referendum on the secession of the Kurdistan region and the areas outside it, and the court confirmed the cancellation of the effects as well as all its consequences.