{"id":28501,"date":"2016-05-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T21:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/101006315\/"},"modified":"2016-05-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T21:00:00","slug":"jmare-6315","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/jmare-6315\/","title":{"rendered":"The Economical and Political Structure of KRG and the Influences of Oil on The Structure"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
 <\/div>\n
\n

The
\nEconomical and Political Structure of KRG and the Influences of Oil on The
\nStructure<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Compared to the rest of Iraq, Kurdistan enjoy more
\neconomic and political stability. However, it still applies that Kurdistan is
\nrun widely by political parties who practice a form of sultanistic system to
\nthis day. Throughout the course of history, we come across examples of nations
\nrising or falling due to their brutal history. History, as well as the
\nexperiences of others, help us understand things from a clearer perspective.
\nThis will therefore help us establish what is to be done today. In Kurdistan,
\nthe political structure and government formation is based on its history as
\nwell as the politics of its resource. We will see what Kurdistan went through
\nfor a period of time and how this changed not only its political structure but
\nalso the economic aspect as well. In the wake of the Kurdish insurgencies, a
\nnew model of governance came into being since the nation\u2019<\/span>s history has ever seen. Many events that
\nmarked the end of a revolution with triumph on the nation\u2019<\/span>s side has given way to the Kurdish trial
\nof rule. To fully comprehend this dynamic of the Kurdish experience regarding
\nautonomous rule, we need to go back to the events the preludes to what is now
\ntoday. The ties of these events to the fledging of the oil industry and their
\neffects will postulate deeper insight and let us delve into the Kurdish case
\nwith oil and its impact on its self-rule.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

After
\nthrowing out the Iraqi army from Kuwait in March 1991 and the emergence of a
\nrevolution in Iraq, affiliates of the Iraqi-government Kurdish local militia,
\nknown as the Jash, joined the PUK and KDP. However, the revolution gradually
\nstopped and US-led armies refused to interfere in support of the rebels. Around
\n1.5 million Kurds escaped before the Iraqi attack, yet Turkey closed the border
\npushing hundreds of thousands to seek out shelter in the mountains. Meanwhile,
\ncoalition forces declared the formation of a “safe haven<\/span>\u201d in April 1991 on the
\nIraqi part of the border. International aid agencies undertook a huge aid
\noperation to aid the refugees. Moreover, on the individual level of operations,
\nfigures like Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani opened dialogues with Saddam Hussein
\non the autonomy for Kurdistan. On May 1992, in the Kurdish controlled area,
\nelections were held in which KDP candidates gained 50.8% of the votes, whereas
\nthe PUK had only 49.2%. In theory, this meant that in the formation of a
\nKurdish government, the two parties would have almost equal balance. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The theory did not turn into
\nreality. In fact, it led to a series of civil wars that marked a period of
\nKurdish modern history. The KDP-PUK civil war may be nothing new, for these two
\nparties have a long history for the intermittent clash that only stopped when
\nthey, alongside with some other minor parties, formed the Iraqi- Kurdistan
\nfront line in the mid 1988s. In 1996, again violence broke out between the two
\nleading parties which led to the formation of two separate governments in Iraqi
\nKurdistan: the PUKs headquartered in Sulaymaniyah, and the KDP in Erbil. Even
\nwith this, neither Talabani nor Barzani actually chose to work for the
\ngovernments they designed. To alleviate the civil conflicts, the U.S.-mediated
\nWashington Agreement in September 1998 was signed by Barzani and Talabani which
\nresulted in launching a formal peace treaty. The two parties (KDP and PUK)
\nagreed to share revenues and power, deny the usage of Iraqi-Kurdistan by the
\nPKK, and not permit Iraqi troops to enter the Kurdish regions. should Saddam
\nHussein attack Kurds. To this, the United States guaranteed to use military
\nforce to protect the Kurds. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Meanwhile,
\nthe standards of life were increased by the implementation of the U.N.
\nOil-for-Food Program which carried revenues to Iraqi-Kurdistan. Iraqi
\nKurdistan became a somewhat peaceful region, until conflict was renewed by
\nAnsar al-Islam by entering the region in late-2001.Also, During the invasion of
\nIraq by American in 2003, PUK and KDP played a considerable role in overrunning
\nmuch of the northern part of Iraq such as Kirkuk and Mosul with American air
\nsupport. Barzani was later elected as a president of Iraqi Kurdistan whereas
\nTalabani was elected as a President of Iraq.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Oil
\ncannot be seen as a single economic entity producing revenue; many of the
\nconsequences of oil exporting and importing are political. Throughout this
\nhistory that is shortly mentioned above oil has had a major impact on the
\nmorphing of the political structures existent today. The major superpowers have
\nalways had interests in keeping these middle eastern regions under their
\nfingertips and casting them into strong footholds that were dependent on them.
\nIn the 1999 Washington agreement, the US intervened to glue back together the
\npolitical forces that shape that newly came out of a civil war with gigantic
\ncasualties; this was not because of America\u2019<\/span>s philanthropism, rather it was because
\nthe Kurds were the only faction in the MENA region that was not extrapolated on
\nthe polarity existent between the Shiite and the Sunni states. Kurdistan had a
\nhope of growing democracy. Due to the hard gains in conventional reserves in
\nthe world, it would only be logical for the major developed countries to sought
\nKRG\u2019<\/span>s
\noil.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Oil has some very odd properties. Considering the revenue, it provides
\nto a country’s economy, one expects to see only positive outcomes as a result.
\nBecause it is a natural resource, it supposedly makes any region rich. We see
\nthat this has not been the case, at least not in all countries with this
\nresource. An obvious change can be detected in the effects it had on the
\ndemocratic structure of some regions. Not only that, but it has created a
\ndependency that has made certain places suffer because of it. By nature, it creates
\nthis dependency that leaves no space for much else to grow and prosper. This
\ndependency may have seemed like a prosperous source of income, but we need to
\nkeep in mind that in the long-run, oil may run out. We have already seen a
\ndeficiency in some places and have already started looking for alternatives.
\nThis contradicting view seems to be the nature of oil. It is supposed to make
\ncountries succeed, but has it really done that? Do we see petro states growing
\nbecause of it or due to the lack of it?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Although there are always exceptions to any kind of extractive
\nconclusion, we can safely say that oil has been a curse, at least in the case
\nof KRG. It has brought a dependent source of income and a change to democracy
\nthat was good for the people and the government in the short-term, but turnt to
\na curse as we moved along. We saw the destructive power it had not only on the
\nsociety and its people, but largely on the political structure as well. One can
\nnever tell what would have happened in the absence of oil in the KRG, but we
\nsee that oil provided Kurdistan with a political structure based on patronage
\nnetworks and dependency that has recently led to a broken economy and injured
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Banu Barzan<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Economical and Political Structure of KRG and the Influences of Oil on The Structure   Compared to the rest of Iraq, Kurdistan enjoy more economic and political stability. However, it still applies that Kurdistan is run widely by political parties who practice a form of sultanistic system to this day. Throughout the course […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[84],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28501"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/28502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sulcci.com\/scci-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}