Paramilitary brutalises voters in Catalan referendum [was:: Fwd: [Diggers350] Kurdish referendum: over 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan back independence]

[Ram Selva]

Scottish independence supported and ex UK diplomat Craig Murray sums up 
the pathetic state of UK media mindset well:

<https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/10/gross-dishonesty-mainstream-media-catalonia/>

"[...]

In a situation where thousands of peaceful voters were brutalised, can 
anybody find a single headline in the mainstream media which attributes 
responsibility for the violence correctly?

     ---
     Catalan referendum
     Separatists claim 90%
     independence vote
     after violent scenes
     ---

This was a headline on the Guardian front page at 10.29am today.  The 
people who wrote it are highly educated media professionals. The 
misleading impression a natural reading gives is absolutely deliberate.

[...]"


---

Spanish colonial legacy nearly puts English colonial legacy to shame 
except the rabid mad activities of the colonial power in Catalonia is 
less polished or absent.





-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Diggers350] Kurdish referendum: over 92% of voters in Iraqi 
Kurdistan back independence
Date: 28-09-2017 11:47
 From: "mark at tlio.org.uk [Diggers350]" 
<Diggers350-noreply at yahoogroups.com>
To: Diggers350 at yahoogroups.com
Reply-To: mark at tlio.org.uk

More than 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan back independence
  Referendum results in overwhelming endorsement of split from Baghdad, 
after troops are sent into disputed areas






  by Martin Chulov, The Guardian
  28/09/2017



  Ref: 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/27/over-92-of-iraqs-kurds-vote-for-independence 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/27/over-92-of-iraqs-kurds-vote-for-independence




  More than 92% of voters in Iraqi Kurdistan have opted for independence, 
according to election monitors, in an overwhelming endorsement of a 
proposed split from Baghdad that has sparked increasing threats of air 
and land blockades that could be imposed as early as Friday.


  The result came after Iraq’s parliament authorised the prime minister, 
Haider al-Abadi, to send troops into areas disputed between Arabs and 
Kurds https://www.theguardian.com/world/kurds that were contentiously 
included in the ballot. Euphoria on the streets of Erbil in recent days 
has been met with sharply increasing tension in the region, which is 
likely to escalate in the wake of the result.


  Baghdad has threatened to close Kurdish airspace at 6pm (1500 GMT) on 
Friday and Turkey says it is considering whether to shut its frontier 
with Kurdistan and impose a trade ban. But in an attempt to calm ever 
more heated rhetoric, Abadi appeared to rule out the use of military 
force, saying on Wednesday: “We don’t want a fight between Iraqi 
citizens.”


  Masoud Barzani, the de facto president of the region’s Kurds, had hoped 
to use strong support for the poll as political leverage that could 
eventually help negotiate independence from Iraq 
https://www.theguardian.com/world/iraq. His moves have been met with 
increasing hostility, raising the prospect of isolation and blockade.


  Some Iraqi leaders have warned of military action, particularly over 
the fate of Kirkuk, and the national parliament approved the use of 
force as part of a 13-point resolution condemning the referendum.

  Peshmerga fighters took control of the Kirkuk oilfields in 2014, when 
the Iraqi army fled in the wake of Islamic State’s advance on the city. 
Kirkuk is home to Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs. The latter appeared to 
boycott the ballot, while Kurds turned out in large numbers.


  Iran has threatened to use Iraqi militias, with whom it has strong 
influence, to wrest back control of the city, which is essential to 
Kurdistan’s fragile economy. As revenue sharing and oil deals have 
collapsed over the past four years, the Kurdish north has completed 
construction of a pipeline to Turkey, which has helped the Kurds export 
oil using its Mediterranean port.


  Trade between Erbil and Ankara is thought to be close to £7.5bn a year, 
meaning Turkey would face a significant financial blow if it chose to 
close its borders. Officials in Erbil believe the Turkish president, 
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will pull back from his threats, but are less sure 
about the next moves in their standoff with Baghdad and Tehran.

  Nationalistic fervour has been widespread in Erbil since Monday’s 
referendum, which large numbers of Kurds have hailed as a landmark 
moment in a centuries-old push for self-determination. Barzani has 
insisted the poll does not trigger immediate moves towards sovereignty. 
Rather, he says, it lays the groundwork for further discussions with 
Baghdad.



  In the absence of a mechanism to advance independence, critics of the 
referendum say it is little more than an opinion poll, which could only 
be leveraged into statehood through broad international involvement.

  With the exception of Russia and Israel, all regional states and most 
international allies and foes opposed the referendum, fearing it would 
destabilise an already volatile area.


  The US and Britain, which strongly opposed the referendum and have 
since described it as “deeply disappointing”, have softened their 
rhetoric and have tried to broker a deal between Erbil and Baghdad. 
Washington has challenged the air blockade, which has led to many 
international carriers suspending flights to Erbil.


  The Kurds are the region’s fourth largest ethnic group and have never 
obtained a nation state. The carve-up of the Middle East after the fall 
of the Ottoman empire left substantial Kurdish populations in what is 
now Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran, as well as a large diaspora abroad. 
Moves towards sovereignty have long been opposed by all four states, who 
fear knock-on effects within their Kurdish communities and potential 
threats to their borders.

[end]