Referendum Kurdistan

On Monday, the Supreme Federal Court issued a verdict about Kurdistan’s independence referendum considering it “unconstitutional”. In fact on September 25, Kurds held a referendum voting to break away from Iraq and defying the central government in Baghdad as well as neighboring Turkey and Iran who have their own Kurdish minorities. The court had already decreed on November 6 that no region or province could secede. The Court’s verdict of today declared the unconstitutionality of the referendum and the court also cancelled all results of the controversial vote, sparking outrage between Erbil and Baghdad. “The Federal Court issued the verdict to consider the Kurdish region’s referendum unconstitutional and this ruling is final” and “the power of this ruling should now cancel all the results of the referendum”, as a court spokesman said. The court is responsible for settling disputes between Iraq’s central government and regions including Kurdistan. Last week the Kurdistan Regional Government said it would respect the verdict that cannot be appealed.