Legal Factors behind Kurdistan Struggle for Secession from Iraq

Abstract

The Kurdistan region of Iraq had been trying for a long time to achieve its independence and to secede from Iraq according to the principles of international law. There were many factors that pushed the Kurdistan region to make several attempts to secede from Iraq. The purpose of this study is to diagnose and define these factors in the legal sense. This study believes that the Kurdistan region has cogent legal factors that endorses  the  legitimacy for the Kurdistan region to demand secession from Iraq which was in fact the motivation for a demand for the implementation of the legal rights of the Kurdistan region under the Iraqi Constitution of 2005.  During that period the Kurdistan region was not able to attain its civil, political, constitutional and human rights within the sovereignty of the Iraqi state. This study presents the importance of the qualitative study, investigation and analysis as the factors behind Kurdistan’s struggle for secession from Iraq through information gathering and direct interviews conducted with 20 participants varying from politicians, leaders, academicians and legal professionals in the Kurdistan region and Iraq. The purpose of this study is to identify the most important legal factors that pushed the Kurdistan region to demand for separation from Iraq. This study is presently the only one on this subject as there is no other previous studies conducted so far on a similar issue.

Key words: Kurdistan, secession, legal factor,  Iraq