Conquering Challenges Facing Kurds in Iraq Today

This booklet is focused on the Iraqi constitution of 2005, which could have saved Iraq and put it on the right track as a democratic and federal country, if implemented in time. Dealing with these crucial issues could have recreated the relationship between Baghdad and Erbil, and perhaps kept the integrity of Iraq. But successive governments in Baghdad have failed to accommodate the Kurds or to persuade them to stay. Back in 2005, Baghdad tried malevolently to delay or not to implement the constitution in parallel with constantly endeavoring to diminish the Kurdish participation in federal institutions. The most important case was the distorted form of the government in Baghdad rocking between federal vs. central structure. In consequence of Baghdad¿s conduct, Kurds were deprived from their share of the federal budget, while fighting with ISIS and defeating them, facing an influx of immigrants that constitute almost 30% of their population. The converging factors finally pushed the KRG to set a date for a national referendum across Kurdistan on September 25, 2017. This referendum will give the people of the region the choice of voting for independence or staying with Iraq.