By Tahseen Wsu Abdullah
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan National Union (KNU) as the two main parties in the Kurdistan Region have the greatest influence on the political process, economic and social development over the past thirty years.
Relations between the two forces have gone through many challenges and ups and downs, from civil war to conflicts at some historical stages, and finally reached the peak of normalization, which is reflected in the strategic agreement between them.
The development of the political process in the Kurdistan Region regarding the relations between these two forces within the framework of an assumption, which is that whenever these two forces have normalized relations, it has directly affected the development of the political process. This assumption is also true in reverse, in the sense that whenever relations between these two forces have been unusual and inconsistent, it has had a direct negative impact on the political process and all other parties.
The issue of the agreement between the PDK and the PUK has been a subject of constant attention since the establishment of the Kurdistan Region. Since the formation of the Kurdistan Regional Government and Parliament, several agreements have been signed between the two forces to resolve the conflicts through dialogue and peace, but the failure to implement the agreements has been a major factor in the Kurdistan Region’s experience.
The results of the agreements between the two sides have been clearly seen at the political, social, economic, administrative and legal levels, towards advancing the Kurdish cause not only in Iraq, but also in the region and the world. For example, the Washington Agreement (1998) was the main reason for ending dual administration and unification of government, and at the political and social levels, this agreement had the greatest impact on political and social cohesion. In other words, the Washington Agreement was a major factor in the development of the nation-building and state-building process in the Kurdistan Region.
The strategic agreement between the PUK and KDP in 2007 was a major factor in the transformation of the Kurdistan Region at the local, Iraqi, regional and global levels, because the achievements have been made under the shadow of this agreement.
The 2007 strategic agreement between the two forces is considered a golden and bright period in the history of the Kurdish liberation movement in Iraq. No other stage of the Kurdish liberation movement in Iraq has been as strong and influential as this, whether politically, economically, strategically, or in terms of diplomacy and foreign relations.
The experience of the strategic agreement between the PUK and KDP has proved that the Kurdistan Region needs an agreement between these two forces in order to both preserve and strengthen this experience. Reviving the spirit of the strategic agreement is very important for this stage, because the experience of the distance between these two forces has shown that the development of the Kurdistan Region is directly linked to the unity and solidarity between these two forces.