By Mohammed Rahman Ahmed *
Why did the French-speaking people of Quebec reject their independence from Canada? Why did the Catalans of Spain say yes to independence and separation? Is Iraq attempting to “Quebec-ize” the Kurdistan Region?
Federal systems, in terms of the types of their constituent units, are generally of two kinds: administrative (geographical) federalism alongside ethnic federalism. The first type is more successful in terms of administration and easier to organize, because it doesn’t have the problem of ethnic, linguistic, and religious diversity. Geographic factors have caused the constituent units to acquire their regional characteristics over history, and they have not been prepared throughout their existence to completely abandon their independence, such as Germany and the United States of America. However, the second type, like Iraq, Canada, Spain, etc., is always fraught with ethnic conflicts, especially if there is political imbalance between the majority nation (which generally becomes dominant and superior) and the minority nation (which generally becomes marginalized and subordinate).
The dominant nation (English in Canada, Spanish in Spain, Arab in Iraq), which has hegemonized the federal government, is always trying to take away all the paths and steps of independence from the subordinate nation, whether through dissolving the culture, language, and identity of the subordinate nation within the culture, language, and identity of the dominant superior nation. They do this more through weakening their economic situation so they don’t think more about freedom, independence, liberation, and separation.
In contrast, the subordinate nation, although it always tries to preserve its national characteristics and wants to keep the dream of independence alive, nevertheless has a kind of accommodation with the state in which they live because they have not tasted independence. Since they opened their eyes, they have been within the framework of this self-contained state and have become bearers of the identity of the state and the dominant nation. This kind of accommodation often enables the federal government, through some efforts, decisions, and policies, to gain the attachment, intimacy, and loyalty of the subordinate nation and make them feel that staying within the framework of this federal state is better than independence, freedom, and liberation.
The most important strategy they adopt is to create a belief among the people of those subordinate nations that their situation, livelihood, and financial condition are better staying with the federal government than separating and becoming independent. Through policies, discourse, and propaganda, they create the feeling that the regional governments of small nations do not have the ability to manage you, and by separation your life becomes difficult and ruined. Generally, the economic capacity of regions has a great impact on the confidence and support of citizens for independence and separation or staying with the federal state.
For this, we can bring two real examples from two federal states. In the first, the subordinate nation rejects separation and its independence due to the economic dominance of the dominant nation over it, as we saw in “Quebec Province” in Canada. In the second, conversely, the subordinate nation votes for separation due to their high economic capacity and confidence in their self-governance, as seen in “Catalonia Province” in Spain.
Quebec Province in Canada, whose inhabitants are French, has a deep historical conflict with the Canadian state, where English-Canadians are dominant. Although Quebec-French have very strong feelings of nationality and patriotism and have always desired independence, so far in two referendums they have held for independence, the majority of people have voted no, to separate. That is, they have chosen to remain with Canada and have rejected independence – the first referendum was held in 1980, the second in 1995.
The main reason for this rejection was economic, at least in the second referendum. The English-Canadians, who control the federal government, have complete hegemony over Quebec’s economy. More than 90% of Quebec’s major companies and big businessmen, capitalists, and investors are English-Canadians. Quebec’s people mostly constitute the working class working in English-Canadian factories. In case of separation, all those major companies and big capitalists would withdraw, thus causing great damage to Quebec’s economy and people’s financial situation. This would have a very bad impact on the banking sector, exports, currency value, and public debt, while Quebec would be deprived of several public services and financial assistance from the Canadian federal government. Generally, Quebec was economically dependent on the government and economy of other federal regions of Canada. Quebec’s economic situation, as we said, was bad on the eve of the second referendum, and would become worse with separation, so despite the warm national and patriotic feelings of Quebecers, the majority did not vote for separation and independence. This dependent economic situation was not self-created but was the result of policies of the federal government and dominant English-Canadians who had been implementing policies to weaken Quebec’s economy for decades, with the intention of putting Quebec-French in a situation where they would not dare to choose independence and separate.
Contrary to Quebec Province, Catalonia Province in Spain is economically the strongest region in Spain. Catalans, like Quebec-French, have strong national and patriotic feelings and desire independence. They, unlike Quebec-French, in 2017 when they held a referendum for independence and separation from Spain, 90% of people voted yes for independence and liberation from Spain. The main reason and motivation was also economic. Catalonia Province is the wealthiest region of Spain. Catalonia alone constitutes nearly 20% of Spain’s gross domestic product. 25% of Spain’s goods pass through Catalonia’s seaports. Most significantly, the rate of money returned from taxes of Catalan citizens to Spain’s federal government is annually 20 billion euros, which is an extremely large amount. In return, the services and financial assistance programs that the federal government provides are not of that nature. Therefore, Catalans considered the existence and policies of the Spanish government as a burden on themselves and their livelihood. They had reached the belief that if they become independent, their life and livelihood would be much better and happier. From this perspective, their feeling of independence and confidence in self-governance was much greater, so they said “yes” to independence.
In light of these two examples, we reach the conclusion that subordinate nations within federal governments, the stronger their economic capacity compared to the federal state, the more they strive for separation and independence. Conversely, if they are poor and their economic capacity is bad compared to the federal government, then they strive to stay and submit within the federal state. The federal state itself might allow the separation of the subordinate nation because it sees them as a burden on itself, like Singapore’s expulsion by the Malaysian state in 1965.
Here we understand that the decisions and policies that the federal government of Iraq pursues against the Kurdistan Region have a certain purpose and agenda behind them, particularly those that emerged through the federal court. Iraq’s purpose and objective in these policies include: stopping independent oil exports; preventing the extraction of gas pipelines outside the country; cutting salaries and budget; attempting to control the region’s total domestic revenue and creating customs gates to reduce the region’s income; and trying to create new gates with Turkey to kill the Ibrahim Khalil gate. Also, accusing the regional government of non-compliance with implementing the budget agreement and with the purpose of not sending people’s salaries, attempting to centralize (Tawteen) the salaries of regional employees, etc. These and several other decisions and policies are all aimed at weakening the economic and financial capacity and authority of the Kurdistan Region and subordinating it, so that whatever economic strength the region has will collapse. This would make the region’s economy completely dependent on Baghdad’s economy, and the people of the Kurdistan Region would be completely dependent and tied to Baghdad financially and in terms of income.
The main reason behind these decisions and policies is to kill political independence through economic dependency. By killing political and economic will, eventually this belief is created among the people of the Kurdistan Region that Kurdish authority is a source of hardship, suffering, and misfortune for its people; that it lacks the capacity for self-governance; and more frighteningly, creating that discourse and feeling that people’s lives and livelihoods improve when they belong to Baghdad and submit to the central government. This ultimately creates a very negative impact on the understanding and feelings of the region’s citizens regarding independence, freedom, and self-governance, like the Quebecois-French in Canada.
At the same time, the Iraqi state’s efforts aim to break the psychology of the Kurdish individual by killing self-confidence and deepening feelings of self-hatred and self-deprecation as a substitute for self-reliance and independence that had developed in the years after the establishment of the Kurdistan Region from 1992 to 2017.
If we look, we see that the federal government of Iraq has implemented this policy to a significant extent, in creating this feeling, mentality, and belief among some of the people of the Kurdistan Region through some of the region’s opposition parties, who in all disputes between the region and Baghdad support Baghdad’s policies against the Kurdistan Region’s government . Also, with those federal court decisions that were issued against the region, they had pleased a number of the region’s people. This demonstrates the reality that economic factors have a great impact on the will and feelings of independence of oppressed nations within federal states.
* PhD student in political science – Salahaddin University