Barzani: Individual and Unilateral Decisions Were the Cause of the Kirkuk Events

Masoud Barzani, the President of the Kurdistan Region, reacted on Tuesday, October 17, to the capture of Kirkuk by Iraqi government forces. According to the Kurdish television network 'Rudaw' based in Erbil, Masoud Barzani stated: What happened in Kirkuk was the result of unilateral decisions made by certain individuals within a political current in Kurdistan, which caused the Peshmerga to retreat in the manner that everyone witnessed. Barzani did not provide further explanations regarding these individuals. Iraqi government forces captured the city of Kirkuk and its oil fields in a swift operation on Monday, October 16. According to Rudaw, in recent days, Peshmerga forces have retreated not only from Kirkuk but also from other disputed areas such as Khanqin, Shingal, Gwar, Makhmour, and Sinun. In this statement, Masoud Barzani emphasized that the border line between the central government forces and the region's forces will be based on the borders of 2016. However, the President of the Kurdistan Region stressed that your loud voice for the independence of Kurdistan, which all countries and the world heard, has never gone to waste and will not go to waste. Meanwhile, Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister of Iraq, stated on Tuesday that the Kurdish independence referendum belongs to the past. According to Reuters, Haider al-Abadi, speaking at a press conference, urged the leaders of the Kurdistan Region to accept the constitutional authority of Iraq. Reuters reports that the control of Kirkuk by government forces has created a complicated situation for the Kurds in this city, and some have severely criticized the retreat of Peshmerga forces from the city. Salar Osman, a university professor and Kurdish leader, criticized the premature holding of the referendum, stating: We now feel defeated. The decision to hold the referendum was a disastrous act. Kurdish leaders should have considered the consequences of the referendum before holding it. Now we have lost everything we had gained over the past three decades. Earlier reports indicated that Shiite militia forces, Hashd al-Shaabi, on Tuesday, in coordination with the Iraqi army, managed to take control of Khanqin, on the border with Iran, after the complete withdrawal of Peshmerga forces, without conflict. Additionally, Hashd al-Shaabi forces entered the city of Sinjar after the exit of Kurdish Peshmerga forces. Muslim Shingali, the commander of local militia forces in the city of Sinjar, told the Associated Press that there was no confrontation in the city and that 'the Kurdish forces left the city without conflict and immediately.' Sinjar, located in the Nineveh province in northern Iraq, fell to the Islamic State group, ISIS, in 2014, which perpetrated massacres against its predominantly Kurdish Yazidi residents.