By Larisa Muhamed Abdulrahman
After the fall of the Ba’ath regime from 2003 to present , during those twenty years, there were many problems and conflicts between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, which caused a disturbance in the balance between the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, and these problems caused disturbance to the people and nations within the Kurdistan Region. The deterioration of the relationship between the two governments, and some of these problems include the budget problem, the oil and gas problem of the Kurdistan Region, the political problem, and the Kurdistan Region’s referendum problem In order to achieve independence and become an independent state, we are trying to solve the problems and problems that we have mentioned above.
Referendum: Prior to the 2017 referendum in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq, the relationship between Erbil and Baghdad resembled a de facto state-to-state relationship, rather than a federal and regional arrangement enshrined in Iraq’s legal framework.
At the time of the Kurdistan referendum for independence, a lot of conflict between the region and Iraq began on October 16, 2017, when Iraq took control of 51% of the Kurdistan Region’s territories, and one of the most important disputed areas captured by the Iraqi army was Kirkuk.
After the Iraqi Liberation Process, the issue of energy, oil and gas occupied a large area of economic policy, political trade, and diplomacy in the Kurdistan Region, especially after the adoption of Iraq’s permanent constitution in 2005, which provided a great opportunity for the Kurdistan Region to develop the energy sector, and in 2006 it established the Ministry of Natural Resources, and in 2007 the Oil and Gas Law was passed by the Kurdistan Parliament.
However, the energy sector has always been a source of legal , constitutional, political and economic disputes and conflicts between the KRG and the federal government. Because oil and gas as a strategic and important resource related to national security is of great importance to the states in general and to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in particular, because Iraq and the Kurdistan Region have a rentier economy and more than 90% of their economy depends on the sale of oil.
The Kurdistan Region has been able to achieve a major milestone in the energy sector, especially in the field of oil, in a short period of time, which was able to overtake the central government in terms of law and pass the oil and gas law in the Kurdistan parliament in 2007 and then make a number of major contracts with the world’s oil companies. These steps of the Kurdistan Region were not a surprise to the central government, because the central government saw it as imposing the will of the region on itself and accused the region of violating the constitution He also took a number of tough steps to reduce the budget of the Kurdistan Region.
The wage crisis in the Kurdistan Region dates back to 2014 when the Kurdistan Region began selling its oil and declared an independent economy.
In mid-2014, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officially announced the export of oil through the pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. Iraq cut the Kurdistan Region’s budget in response to the Kurdistan Region’s declaration of an independent economy.
Baghdad’s cut of the Kurdistan Region’s budget has caused the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to face a severe economic crisis and forced the KRG to cut its salaries.At this stage, a mutual understanding and a mature policy are needed for both sides to end their ignorance. On the other hand, a joint oil and gas law between the central government of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government is essential to avoid misinterpretations of the constitutional frameworks. The international community should also play an active role in the negotiation process and participate only for the benefit of both sides. The international community should put more pressure on both sides, and ultimately The public interest must be taken into account first and foremost.