Barzani Calls for Kurdish Independence

In CNN Exclusive Interview 

Kurdish President Massoud Barzani in an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday gave his strongest-ever indication that Iraqi Kurdistan would see formal independence from the rest of Iraq. (Please see the video of the interview below)

“Iraq is obviously falling apart,” Barzani said. “And it’s obvious that the federal or central government has lost control over everything. Everything is collapsing – the army, the troops, the police.”

“We did not cause the collapse of Iraq. It is others who did. And we cannot remain hostages for the unknown.

“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

“Now we are living [in] a new Iraq, which is different completely from the Iraq that we always knew, the Iraq that we lived in ten days or two weeks ago.”

“After the recent events in Iraq, it has been proved that the Kurdish people should seize the opportunity now – the Kurdistan people should now determine their future.

“I will ask him, ‘How long shall the Kurdish people remain like this?’ The Kurdish people is the one who is supposed to determine their destiny and no one else,” Barzani said.

Barzani also called on Maliki to step down.

“(The) situation has been very complicated. And the one who’s responsible for what happened must step down.”

Amanpour asked if Barzani meant Prime Minister al-Maliki.

“Of course. He is the general commander of the army. He builds the army on the ground of personal loyalty to him, not loyalty to the whole country. And he monopolizes authority and power. He led the military, and this is the result,” Barzani said.

The Peshmerga have recently taken control of Kirkuk, and this is what Barzani said on that issue.

“We never had any doubt at any time that Kirkuk is part of Kurdistan.

“For the last ten years, we have been waiting to have (the constitutional) article applied (to determine Kirkuk’s future), but we haven’t seen any seriousness from the central government. And since we have new developments in Iraq now, this is what brought about the new situation with Kirkuk coming back to Kurdistan.

“We haven’t done this referendum yet, but we will do and we will respect the opinion of the citizens even if they refuse to have Kurdistan as an independent state,” Barzani said.

Source: CNN.
Photo: Kurdish President Massoud Barzani during the interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour. (AFP/Getty Images/CNN)
Video: YouTube