Kurdish referendum inspires statehood for Iraq's Sunnis too
Last month's Kurdish independence referendum in Iraq has inspired some of the country's Sunni leaders to call for their own autonomous state in its Sunni areas.
BAGHDAD — Sunni forces in Iraq are working on advancing their project to establish an autonomous Sunni region. Sunnis see the Kurdish referendum as an opportunity to achieve self-autonomy in their provinces as well.
The spokesman for Arab tribes in Ninevah province, Mouzahem al-Huwait, talked about the call to form a Sunni region during a TV show on an Israeli channel Oct. 3. He said, “Arab Sunnis are facing killings and displacement, and the government has offered them nothing while they were displaced.”
He added, “Kurdistan is on the verge of creating its own state, and we will create a Sunni region as well.”
Asked whether the Sunni project is similar to numerous, previous calls for independence from Iraq, Huwait told Al-Monitor, “Sunni sheikhs in Mosul started contacting their counterparts in the western areas — namely in Anbar, Ninevah, Salahuddin and Diyala — to bring viewpoints on the issue closer. The next step will be to put pressure on the Sunni political forces in the government to adopt the project.”
