Kurdistan’s Curious Democracy

Rosemary Youhana

Security, Middle East

Kurdish authorities in Iraq and Syria aren’t ready for democracy, they’re ready to rule, and there’s a stark difference between the two.

It’s been over a year since the Kurdish Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum where over three million people voted overwhelmingly in favor of separating from Iraq. Much like their Iraqi brethren, Syria’s Kurds have also benefited handsomely from the civil war, now controlling cantons in northeastern Syria. Presently, both regions are seen as models for democracy in the Middle East, and the Kurds enjoy a level of autonomy and freedom of which their ancestors could only dream. But this freedom is a privilege afforded to few. For years, major Kurdish political parties and their associated militias have relied on repressive governance to maintain and expand power in their respective regions. Kurdish authorities in Iraq and Syria aren’t ready for democracy, they’re ready to rule, and there’s a stark difference between the two.

Since the early 1990s, the Kurds of Iraq have made impressive strides in their self-administered region, assembling a dedicated police force called the asayish and a 111-seat Parliament. Now the Iraqi Kurdish people are finally exercising the kind of freedoms that they’ve dreamt of for decades under the oppressive regime of Saddam Hussein. In Syria, the Democratic Union Party (PYD) used the Syrian government’s retreat from the northeast of the country as an opportunity to move in and provide services such as water, sanitation, and most importantly, security.

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