MESOP : DON’T MISS AN INTERESTING LONDON EVENT – Seminar: ‘A Federation that Never was: Erbil & Baghdad the End of Federalism’ / Kurdish Institute & KSSO
Speaker: Dr Sardar Aziz – Date/Time: 17 December @18:00 – Venue: Djam Lecture Theatre, SOAS, University of London, Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG
Organised by London Kurdish Institute and KSSO – Seminar abstract : The relationship between Baghdad and Erbil was never ideal. Lately it reached its lowest point. How these two centers of power connect, relate and compete within the Iraqi territory. Nominally a federation arranges Erbil and Baghdad; while in reality the two are related in the balance of power mode of relationship. Thus power is the essence of the relationship rather than a constitutional arrangement. Power is inherently instable.
Some argue that ‘the federal government had been “disembowelled,” creating not a federation but an unworkable confederation’. Expanding on this argument I stress that federation hampers the KRG’s growth and stability. What the KRG requires is more and more sovereignty over land, natural resources, use of force and diplomacy. In response Iraq is stiffing on more centralist. If within the federal arrangement Kurds has the rights to govern but not to be the sovereign, now their economic development and the phase of their identity, requires them to have no choice but to demand more sovereignty. The two cities not only represent two different regions and ethnicities but they also vary in their patterns of economic growths, identities, and governing.
Dr Sardar Aziz’s biography: Dr Sardar Aziz is a senior adviser to the Natural Resource Committee at the Kurdistan Parliament of Iraq. He is a graduate of the Government Department at Cork University College in Ireland where he completed his PhD thesis on States in the Middle East. Dr. Aziz has also worked as an academic and teaching Orientalism and Diplomacy at the Asian Studies and Government Departments respectively at UCC. He has worked as an advisor to Irish MEPs in Brussels, worked with various think tanks including GIGA in Germany and ORSAM in Turkey. He carried out research with Gorran’s political research chamber and published a monograph entitled the KRG and Natural Resources published in Beirut 2013. Dr. Aziz is a regular writer for various other journals and newsletters. His forthcoming publication is a monograph on Turkey and the KRG relationships. He is a columnist at Awene Newspaper.