Massoud Barzani: The KRG Representative to the U.S. Responds
The "Commentary" by Sam Brennan, "The Misrule of Massoud Barzani: Iraqi Kurdistan's Yasser Arafat," is erroneous and ill-informed.
Mr. Brannen begins with the statement that the "Kurdish north is increasingly a source of unrest" and "becoming a danger both to the country and to its own people." What "unrest" and "danger" is he referring to? There is no political violence or unrest in the Kurdistan region. The Kurdistan Region is the most stable and democratic part of Iraq, and regularly acknowledged as such by administration officials and members of Congress. Furthermore, it is hard to square how KRG cooperation in overthrowing Saddam Hussein, drafting the Iraqi constitution, fighting terrorism and meeting political benchmarks such as passing the provincial election law last month are a "danger" to Iraq and the Kurds.
That the KRG, like many governments, is imperfect and has corruption is true. But unlike other governments in the region, the KRG can point to a level of progress in democratic reforms, tolerance, transparency and better governance. I would challenge Mr. Brannen to identify another region in Iraq or the Middle East where the secular trend, as well as tolerance for diversity, is as well-developed as it is in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.
Brannen also claims that Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Region and a revered figure among the Kurds, "may go down as the Yasser Arafat of the Kurdish people." Yasser Arrafat acquiesced to terrorism as a tactic to promote his and his party's goals, whereas President Barzani has been one of America's staunchest allies in fighting terrorism. We Kurds have been victims of terrorism, not its proponents. This comparison is at best sloppy and uninformed, and at worst slanderous, and Mr. Brannen should be held accountable for it.
As the son of President of Iraq Jalal Talabani, I take strong personal offense at Brannen's unflattering comparison of Massoud Barzani to Jalal Talabani. He fails to recognize the important role played by President Barzani on every major milestone in Iraq's development. His input and involvement, in Baghdad with President Talabani, has led to breaking of the impasse on many major issues, including the drafting and the ratification of Iraq's permanent constitution. While the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan have had their differences in the past, the Kurdish leadership is today united, and Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani are the closest of confidantes and partners in building both the Kurdistan Region and a federal and democratic Iraq...
Full story: http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/article.aspx?id=2740
