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Barham Salih warms up to fight for Kurdistan in Baghdad

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Barham Salih warms up to fight for Kurdistan in Baghdad

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Apr 19, 2018 11:21 pm

Barham Salih warms up to fight for Kurdistan in Baghdad

Defending his record from his time as prime minister of the Kurdistan Region, Barham Salih said his goal in this election is not a top position, but to be a strong advocate for the constitutional rights of Kurds in Baghdad.

Salih's Coalition for Democracy and Justice (CDJ) is competing for seats in the Iraqi parliament in the Kurdistan Region as well as the disputed areas where they are in the Homeland (Nishtiman) alliance with Gorran and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (Komal).

Asked whether he seeks to secure the Iraqi presidency – a post traditionally held by a Kurd and always by a PUK leader since the constitutional formation of the Iraqi government in 2005 – Salih said that senior positions are not a priority for his party.

"If I were seeking the position of the presidency, there are easier ways to achieve that," Salih said, explaining that a party had offered him the post. :ymapplause:

"The position of the presidency was presented to me through a mechanism. If it were our objective, we would have taken that mechanism," he said, without naming the party.

Salih formed CDJ last fall. Prior, he had been a senior leadership member within the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

"I feel proud of the history of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan," he said about the party that he had joined as a teenager in 1970s. He said that he joined the party then because it was a pioneer.

Some CDJ members have come under pressure from the PUK and have been dismissed from their former party because of their support for Salih’s new venture.

PUK bylaws stipulate that one cannot be a member of two parties at the same time.

Salih was busy at CDJ’s main office in Erbil when a Rudaw team visited him. The native of Sulaimani said he had based the headquarters here "because Erbil is our capital." It is where he launched the party's official campaign on Sunday.

Salih served about two and a half years, from 2009 to 2012, as prime minister of the Kurdistan Region – an office he said he made accountable to the parliament during his tenure.

Asked about his experience as prime minister, Salih said he achieved as much as he could during the short period.

The government presented the budget and oil contracts to the parliament, he said, comparing that with the current KRG cabinet that has failed to present the budget since its formation in 2014.

His government employed tens of thousands of people, a record that Salih said he was proud of since he introduced a point-based system for the first time that prioritized skills.

"We employed people based on the approved budget," he explained.

With regard to the Kurdish role in the Iraqi parliament, Salih said that Kurds have to continue fighting for their rights in Baghdad as long as they are part of a united Iraq under the constitution.

He, however, remains a believer of the Kurdish right to an independent state.

"I believe that the people of Kurdistan have the right to self-determination. I have said this even in Baghdad in Arabic – that the Kurdish people have the right to self-determination and that it is the just right of the people of Kurdistan."

"The territorial integrity of Iraq can be preserved only through one thing: respecting democracy, the rights of the components, and the will of the components to live together voluntarily," he said.

The Kurdish parties must take some of the blame when it comes to the lack of implementation of Kurdish rights, Salih said.

"The right to self-determination of the people of Kurdistan will not be protected through corruption, smuggling, and stealing," he said, accusing the current ruling parties of allowing some "bad" people to take over key positions.

It is such people who sold out 50 percent of Kurdish territory to the Iraqi forces, Salih said about the loss of disputed areas last October.

Fighting corruption is a key plan in CDJ’s platform.

"The Kurds have a great deal of constitutional rights. We have to protect those rights," he said about CDJ’s plans for their would-be MPs.

For example, "The salary of the Peshmerga is half of that of the Iraqi forces, is it not a shame?" Salih asked about failure of Kurdish MPs to fight for Kurds in the Iraq parliament.

"There is a chauvinistic and wrong trend in Baghdad of those who want to undermine the political entity of Kurdistan. We are against it," he said.

"Baghdad cannot subjugate us. Baghdad cannot impose its own will on us. We are not so weak, nor is Baghdad that powerful."

http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/170420185
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Barham Salih warms up to fight for Kurdistan in Baghdad

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