Explosion of the wage crisis: furor in “Kurdistan”

Sulaymaniyah | The decision of the Kurdistan Region Council of Ministers, which decided to pay the salaries of public sector employees last October, with a deduction of 21 percent, was the scene of an explosion that occurred quickly. As only a few hours had passed after the decision was issued, flames appeared in the direction of Bireh Makron, north of Sulaymaniyah governorate (the district is one of the units of the country’s administrative division, and includes a city and some surrounding towns and villages). The protesters set fire to the headquarters of the five Kurdish political parties, in protest at the continuous deterioration of living conditions for months, due to the delay in the payment of salaries and the deductions that affected them, until the situation arrived to the government of the “region” headed by Masrour Barzani (son of the leader Massoud Barzani) until the 4-month wages were paid. Only in one year (2020). Soon, the spark of anger spread among the citizens, starting with Bireh Makaron, passing through the areas of Sayed Sadiq, Jammal, Darbandikhan, Kalar and Bazian, and without ending in Sulaymaniyah, the center of the governorate. These mobile protests were met with repression by the security forces, killing 3 people (one of them was less than 15 years old) and injuring others.

The roots of the current crisis can be traced back to the approach followed by the two ruling Kurdish parties: the “Kurdistan Democratic Party” (led by Masoud Barzani) and the “Patriotic Union of Kurdistan” (the sons of the late Jalal Talabani and his comrades) in the government of the “region”, and its adoption of the principle of sharing the “pie” of the centers. The two sides strengthened their control over the region’s natural resources and financial income to finance the expansion of their influence. They also monopolized high-income public jobs due to their popular electorate, in addition to their total control of all investment projects in the public and private sectors. As a result of this strategy, the situation in the “region” deteriorated with the first political dispute between his government and the government of Baghdad in 2014, over the limits of the internal and external powers of “Kurdistan” within the framework of the Iraqi state. (It can be said that the relationship between the center and the “region” went through three stages, starting with the postponement of the implementation of Article 140 regarding the disputed territories in 2007, then revoking the Erbil agreement in 2010, when the Mosul city fell to the organization of “ISIS” in 2014, and the attempt of the “region” to secede after the arrival of Haider al-Abadi. The two parties, especially the economic arrangement represented by the region’s participation in budget).
The governorate / city of Sulaymaniyah received most of the repercussions of these riots As a result of the multiplicity of parties in it, and the strong opposition to the influence of the “National Union”, in addition to the rampant corruption of a great difference with the rest of the governments of the “region”, due to the “mafias” that impose royalties on investors and businessmen, and demand a percentage of their profits, and this was not denied by the party’s co-presidency. Pavel Talabani, when he announced at the end of last November the formation of a committee to investigate the involvement of a large number of “gangsters” in “dirty” acts, as he described, committing to stop them and hold them accountable to put an end to this phenomenon.

Sulaymaniyah governorate / city had most of the repercussions of the political unrest

Returning to employee salaries, Baghdad deducted them from the region’s share of the country’s general budget (the percentage of this deduction ranged from 17% to about 12.67%), resulting in Erbil being unable to pay a large portion of your employees regularly. Since Adel Abdul Mahdi became Iraq’s prime minister, and then Mustafa Al-Kazemi took office, Erbil launched a series of dialogues and negotiations with Baghdad in an effort to reach an agreement that satisfies the conditions of the latter, represented in the delivery of imports of 250 thousand barrels of oil per day, in addition to the financial income of the border ports, and the restructuring of the sector. Government employees to address the “double salary” dilemma. As the total salaries of employees in the “region” approximately 894 billion Iraqi dinars / month (about 75 million US dollars), according to government estimates, while the government in Erbil confirms that it receives less than half of the amount at about 453 billion dinars.
And the former Kurdish representative in the Iraqi parliament, Adel Nuri, affirms that “Erbil has sufficient imports for the regular payment of wages, especially those that come from taxes, points of sale and sale of oil.” He added in his speech to “Al-Akhbar” that “despite the lack of transparency in the Oil sales operations, we estimate that what the region earns as a result of this is approximately 450 billion dinars per month. Nouri refers to the audacity of the two ruling parties in using the deprivation of citizens as a “pressure card” to influence Baghdad in the ongoing negotiations, with the help of an organized series of speeches and messages delivered through the media, and holds the federal government accountable for what is happening.
On the other hand, it seemed that the “democrat” had a divided stance towards recent events. Officially, the head of the “regional” government saw the situation “difficult” and beyond the control of his government, accusing the parties that he did not specify of seeking to sabotage the stability of “Kurdistan”, referring to Baghdad that can take advantage of the events to take advantage of the ongoing negotiations, forcing His government to make quick and urgent decisions, since it decided for the first time to send two delegations, one political and one governmental, to the Federal Capital, hoping to reach an urgent agreement on the 2021 budget that guarantees a way out of the economic crisis.
As for the unofficial position, expressed by various party members and cadres, he pointed an accusing finger to two sides: the first is a movement in the “Union” that opposes the “democratic” seizure of the articulations of the executive and legislative authorities, and striving to implement administrative decentralization in the governorates of Sulaymaniyah and Halabja; As for the second party, it is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is working to ignite the protests through indirect incitement, using influential and cooperative media, according to the allegations circulating.

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