Time for an 'amicable divorce' between Iraqi Kurds, Baghdad: KRG spokesperson

The time has come for the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad to start discussing an "amicable divorce," according to a spokesperson for the Kurdish autonomous region.

"We should enter a serious dialogue with Baghdad to reach an amicable solution - an amicable solution for divorce," KRG spokesperson Safeen Dizayee recently told daily Hürriyet.

"We can be two good neighbors. This is something we want as the only way," he added.

"The principle of consensus was something all sides agreed on [in 2003], but now that principle is no longer there. It is a majority-minority vote. So even if Kurds have 65 seats in Baghdad, we will always be the minority," he said.

The central administration has also been blocking the KRG's share in the budget, Dizayee said.

"We are always at the mercy of Baghdad and this is why we are looking to find another formula. Our budget has been cut; there is no assistance for the military. These show that we cannot work together. There is an Iraq before Mosul and post-Mosul. This is why we have to seek a solution for stability. The only way forward is to go for an independent entity in Iraqi Kurdistan," the spokesperson said.

According to Dizayee, the only way to achieve that target is through dialogue.

"We need to enter serious conversations first with Baghdad before anybody else," he said. 

"Then hopefully with our other neighbors so that they do not see this newborn entity as a threat to their security and stability. We are talking about the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan alone. We have no ambitions of a territory in Iran, Syria and Turkey," he said.

Ankara has always opposed any sort of independent Kurdistan, highlighting Iraq's territorial integrity....