Chair Report
“Addressing the current issue of the use of territories of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq by illegal armed groups such as the PKK and addressing the current issue and its implications on the international peace and security” Relevant Background Information about the Conflict Kurds have never had, and still today do not have, their own formal sovereign state. Up until very recently, Kurds have not had their own formally recognized province in the region. The victors of World War I divided the region and ultimately divided what was Kurdistan into various states (Iran, Iraq, and Turkey mainly.) In of those states, ethnic Kurdish peoples are minorities and played a small part in any form of government. No real changes were made to the Kurds in terms of autonomy and such until much later. Subsequent to Gulf War I, the Americans and her allies created a region for ethnic Kurds to live in Iraq. With the withdrawal of the Iraqi government and military, Iraqi Kurdistan was born and because its own autonomous region consisting of both its own government and parliament yet still part of sovereign Iraq. This happened in 1992. Since then, the northern provinces of Iraq have been predominantly Kurdish and governed by almost exclusively Kurds. The fact that this area was essentially annexed by the Americans for the Kurds to govern with relative autonomy lead to widespread resentment by the neighboring countries including Turkey, Syria, Iran, and even within Iraq. This reality only strengthened the tensions between the Kurds and the Turks and the Kurds and the ethnic “Arabs.” The Kurdistan Regional Government is the official, autonomous government of Iraqi Kurdistan in Northern Iraq. Iraqi Kurdistan borders Turkey to the north and Iran to the south yet it has tremendous influence on other Iraqi provinces that border the region as well as Turkey, Iran, and Syria. (See Maps Below – ignore inset map) For decades, there have been many terrorists groups that are internationally recognized including the most famous, the Kurdistan Workers' Party or Parti Karkerani Kurdistan (PKK.) While it may no longer be the case, for many years the ruling party in Kurdistan particularly Iraqi Kurdistan have extended open arms to those connected to the PKK and offered what asylum they could. Many high profile members of the government of Kurdistan have been connected with various terrorist groups including the PKK, Al Qaeda, and various other Islamic Fundamentalist groups throughout history. The allowance of known terrorists to find refuge in Iraqi Kurdistan has caused it many problems over the past few decades as well including ones in which both the Americans and the British have formally requested that those terrorists be extradited. In addition to the “asylum” granted by Kurdistan, terrorist groups like the PKK are known to hold their headquarters in the region as well as recruiting heavily. As Abu Hamza did in Riyadh, the PKK can openly recruit in many of the poorer parts of Iraqi Kurdistan extraordinarily easily and many Kurds feel that is their obligation to serve or have
their sons serve along side the PKK as the Wahhabi preachers called for. Turkish-Kurdish “Situation”/Relations The Turks and the Kurds have interacted quite a lot of history and conflicts have arisen frequently over the last century. In summary of events prior to 1980, tensions were heightened for both the Turks and the Kurds, many Kurds were killed, many Turks were killed, yet ultimately there was still no Kurdistan. The government of Turkey place a “Turkification” policy on many regions of Turkey including many Kurds. The Kurds rebelled against this using both peaceful activity as well as violent actions to create a separate Kurdish State in response to the Turkish government’s treatment of its Kurdish citizens. While the Kurds did not get a state, they resisted almost all fo the assimilation governmental policies by continuing Kurdish language education. The suppression of Kurdish by the Turks essentially failed. Then, after the coup in Turkey in 1980, the new government banned the speaking of the Kurdish language in public which was only lifted 11 years later. While there were many conflicts prior to 1983, the relevant ones happened afterwards. The Turkish government placed Kurdish regions under martial law in 1983 in response to the PKK’s military separatists activities – which was then, and still is today, considered a terrorist organization by both the EU and the US. For a decade, a guerrilla war occurred in predominantly Kurdish areas. Thousands upon thousands of Kurdish areas and villages were completely destroyed and the populations were decimated. One estimate states that, “More than 37,000 people were killed in the violence and hundreds of thousands more were forced to leave their homes.” While the conflict didn’t end, it came to a relative halt in the early 1990s with an exponentially fewer number of deaths. However, only in 1999 was the PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan captured. In response to this capture, the EU strongly encouraged increased tolerance for Kurdish activity. Turkey recently, in 2003, looked back into their prior cultural suppression of Turks and eased many of their harsh restrictions on the speaking of Kurdish and but they still not allowed to name their children Kurdish names. Many member of the non terrorist Kurdish part have worked strongly together with the Turks in repopulating the South East even though continued PKK atrocities still occur. One statistic claims that, “An estimated 3,000 Kurdish villages in Turkey were virtually wiped from the map, representing the displacement of more than 378,000 people” by the Turkish military. Human Rights Watch even backed up those numbers. CURRENT RELEVANT INFORMATION While the Kurds may not have their own formal sovereign state, huge leaps have been made in bringing about a safe haven for Kurds to live in. For example, the KRG has been granted, by the Iraqi Government in Baghdad, to do various things including – having its own foreign relations including with countries in the region, host consulates/trade offices, send its own representation overseas, be recognized as an
autonomous state, and have its own standing army. Furthermore, the Iraqi military is not allowed to enter KRG territories or govern in that region federally without mandate. Both Turkey and Iran have voiced their concern that the KRG and having its autonomous state could be a threat to them as neighboring countries because they have a substantial number of Kurds living near or on their borders with Iraq. For example, Turkey has not opened a consulate in Kurdistan at all even though it has a tremendous amount of trade with the region. All G20 countries with exception of Turkey recognized the KRG as an autonomous state in addition to the UN and the EU. The KRG even have their own offices at the United Nations. Kurdish fights, known as Peshmerga, fought arm in arm with the American Military forces in Operation Iraqi Freedom. During Gulf War II, they played an integral part in the security of northern Iraq and not one allied soldier or national was harmed in any way (not killed, kidnapped, or hurt) in Kurdistan from 2003 on at the point of Invasion. INFORMATION ON THE USE OF TERRITORIES CURRENTLY While the Kurdistan Regional Government itself is by no means a terrorist organization, in fact, Kurds living there have the highest quality of life in Iraq, the lowest crime rate in Iraq, and highest net per capita income in Iraq. Having said that, throughout history, the Kurds have been connected to various terrorist groups. Now, since Kurdistan was is its own formal entity, the housing and protection of known terrorists has become a problem. The KRG is known to be sympathetic to PKK terrorists and many of its strongholds lie in the territories of the KRG. The United States, Turkey, and the United Nations have all strongly encouraged the Kurdistan Regional Government to NOT house or provide any assistance to terrorists – even passive assistance. Between trade embargoes on such items as surface to air missiles and threats of the loss of support for the cause, the government has become more stringent. Having said that though, not much, if anything, is being done by the KRG, International Organizations, and neighboring countries about the use of the territories by groups like the PKK. This may because of the lack of authority of the neighboring states to interfere in the affairs of other governments or because no feasible solution is in place. POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS -The G20 demanding (trade) embargoes on the KRG to no longer provide any form of political, military, social, and even passive assistance to known terrorist groups -The UN condemning the KRG for providing any form of political, military, social, and passive assistance to known terrorist groups -The formal creation of a Kurdish State (like what happened with Israel minus the war) taking land from any of the following – Iraq, Iran, and Turkey. This is most likely not a viable option as Turkey will never cede land, neither will Iran. Iraq has already granted the KRG autonomy and therefore would most likely not grant more. -The halt of UN based aid to Kurdistan in any form until assistance to terrorists is
halted -the UN putting a peacekeeping task force in Kurdistan to find and eliminate all terrorist groups UNITED NATIONS INVOLVEMENT The United Nations is and has been involved in Kurdistan in numerous different areas with everything from providing development assistance through its various agencies, by helping ensure a fair election on more than one occasion, by providing economic, political, and social advice to the new state of Kurdistan when it was first founded, as well as helping to establish it as a state. The UN is still involved in Kurdistan itself providing aid in the form of development work. In addition to that, the UN continues to strongly encourage the practice of good human rights as well as respect for international law. Both Ban Ki Moon and Kofe Annan spoke out against the mistreatment of people, sympathies to terrorists and terrorist groups, and its violation of international law. However, not much has been done and no resolutions have been passed concerning the use of KRG territories by terrorist groups. Sources: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/325241/Kurdistan Viviano, Frank (January 2006). "The Kurds in Control". National Geographic Magazine (Washington, D.C.). http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/features/world/asia/iraq/iraqi-‐kurds-‐ text http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=3241&l=1 http://www.kurdishglobe.net/displayArticle.jsp?id=41553A6C82A718E53EF61407D36D36FC
http://www.economist.com/world/middleeastafrica/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13145898 http://www.krg.org/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan_Regional_Government http://www.krgocuna.org/agencies_projectview.asp?Title=%3Cp%3E%3Cfont+f ace%3 D%22Verdana%22+color%3D%22%23000000%22+size%3D%222%22%3E%3 Cstron g%3EUN+Assistance+to+Kurdistan+Regional+Government+2008%3C%2Fstron g%3E %3C%2Ffont%3E%3C%2Fp%3E http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=37632 Kurdistan Legal Boundaries – SOURCE: Staff reports | By Mary Kate Cannistra The Washington Post November 23, 2008 “http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/graphic/2008/11/23/GR2008112300231.html”
EXECUTIVE BOARD II (FINANCE)
Question Of: The issue of enforcing free trade and equality in the markets of the emerging economies taking into account the situation at the previous Doha conference
BACKGROUND INFORMATION What is free trade? Trade without the interference of any government policies is free trade. Without tariffs, subsidies and embargos the goods and products will be traded under a free trade policy, and intermediary organizations or governments will not gain any profits. Tariff: Taxes put on imported goods, by the government. It increases the prices of the goods that consumers must buy at but the government gains revenue. Subsidy: Monetary aid given by the government to producers to reduce the price at which the goods are sold. It is usually done to protect local markets from being destroyed by cheaper imports. Embargo: A total ban on trade. Example: USA and Cuba. Many free trade agreements have been made to boost up the economies of LDC’s. Numerous free trade areas exist in the world such as Greater Arab Free Trade Areas (GAFTA), South Asia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA), European Economic Area (EEA), Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) etc. Free trade is observed to be negative in many countries since they believe that with a policy like this, the gap between the rich and poor rapidly widens. What is the Doha Conference? The Doha conference is often called the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). It is a conference held in Doha, Qatar and has started in 2001. WTO (World Trade Organization) gathers many countries every November to negotiate and discuss issues on trade and how to enforce new free trade areas around the world. After many other meetings over the years, the last meeting was held on July, 2008. This last meeting was a failure and many countries were divided due to their strict point of views. Many countries had opposing remarks related to agricultural import rules therefore a tense conference was held. Even though at the end of 2008 other meetings were organized the issue remains resolved. What is WTO? The World Trade Organization is an organization that mainly deals with free trade; its sole purpose is to assist countries to negotiate and eliminate tariffs, embargos etc. This organization has the power to decide on solutions for disputes in between member countries. Nonetheless, its effectiveness is questionable. The organization arranges a “Ministerial Conference” every two years for discussing issues on trade and making new agreements on multiple disputes relevant to free trade and barriers. The organization has its meetings closed to the media. WTO is castigated due to many things. As a result of having the authority to change regulations, agreements and laws in countries, it is believed to be severely dominant. The organization is said to be ignorant towards LDC’s, the environment, worker and child rights. In addition, since the meetings are closed to the media it is opposed to, due to the lack of democratic accountability.
RELATED COUTNRIES There is an aggressive division between emerging economies such as China, South Africa, Brazil and India and developed, strong economies such as the EU and USA. Since USA is working on decreasing actions and policies that would obstruct trade which is associated with agriculture (due to the demands of the EU, India and Brazil), the country is still expected to negotiate on tariffs. USA is one of the biggest supporters of free trade. Previously there was a U.S-Brazil dispute in the World Trade Organization, where Brazil insisted in reductions of subsidies from the United States that would have a negative effect on
trade. Recently China has joined the WTO and Russia has started its negotiations to join as well. Russia, in the last Doha conference stated that their first priority was their countries own interests but were fully devoted to be a part of the WTO. Including their open view on joining the new emerging economies in trade, they showed a positive attitude towards continuing negotiations. Cuba on the other hand, criticized the devotion put in by major economies and how measures hadn’t been taken. Believing that protectionism, which is pertained by nontariff barriers and subsidies, should be removed, Cuba disapproved the inconsiderate financial decisions concerning the World Bank. The country also emphasized the need to protect their agriculture and producers. EU countries have a free trade agreement in between all of the members therefore many have a positive outlook on enforcing free trade. Fair trade is a movement beneficent to less developed countries; the movement is supported by many countries in Africa. Fair trade wants to ensure greater equality in economy and affordable products for all countries. Australia plays a huge role for aiding fair trade in the global environment. The country has contributed to the Aid for Trade programme with $400 million for 2009-10 and has also doubled its aid to the WTO for development in LDC’s related to the international trading system. Although Iraq desires to be a member of many international organizations like several other developing countries, many organizations state that the country does not have the necessary economic measures to join. They object to the situation; poor countries have to take less money from IMF and the World Bank for economical purposes. Checking your country’s membership in organizations such as World Trade Organization or Fair Trade Federation can be helpful in finding out your country’s policy and ideology.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS During the past years all countries have tried to resolve the issue by signing agreements related to free trade. Many pacts have been signed and are in practice yet some issues still need resolving. The main issue yet to be resolved is related to agriculture; many developing countries believe that eliminating subsidies will solve the problem and bring equality to the markets. Meanwhile, Europe has been criticized by its agricultural subsidies. Previous solutions have included false promises, therefore to work out an effective solution the promises have to be realistic. Moreover, these agreements have to be monitored and controlled. A way of keeping track should be considered and penalties could be put into order. Since the World Bank has only dedicated $16 billion to developing countries even though they have acquired $96 billion, new solutions could be worked out regarding financial matters. Another problem for reaching equality in markets is the requirement of technology; many countries are willing to enhance their economies but they lack the technology to implement solutions. This aspect of the problem can be emphasized and aid can be received from the major economies to the developing ones. Regional and bilateral agreements can be made to ensure an equal trading system. Furthermore, states that are not members of the trade organizations (WTO etc.) can join in with these agreements.
UN INVOLVEMENT There is a UN organ called United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and another called International Trade Centre (ITC). Both of these
intergovernmental bodies work with the WTO on issues concerning trade. One of UNCTAD’s main purposes is to create equality in markets; to ensure this they hold conferences every 4 years. They have created various reports to cautiously examine the issue at hand. The UN has regional programmes as well. For example: - ECAP (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific) - ECA (Economic Commission for Africa) UNECE (Economic Commission for Europe) - ECLAC (Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean) - EDGD (Economical Social Commission for Western Asia)
MAPS/GRAPHICS “Growth of World Trade” http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/figures/growth-of-world-trade “U.S. Free Trade Agreement Partners in the Global Economy” http://www.trade.gov/fta/index.asp
USEFUL LINKS **This link shows the member countries of the WTO and every country’s specific trade policies: http://www.wto.org/english/theWTO_e/whatis_e/tif_e/org6_e.htm This link explains the Doha Conference: http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/dda_e/dda_e.htm This website has specific economical statistics on every single country/Helpful for understanding your country’s economical position: http://www.nationmaster.com/cat/ecoeconomy List of all free trade agreements between countries: http://www.sice.oas.org/agreements_e.asp This link shows the free trade areas etc. on a map http://www.efta.int/content/free-trade/fta-map
WORKS CITED BBC NEWS. Profile: World Trade Organization. BBC. 5 March 2009. 27.12.2009.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/2429503. stm European Commission, Trade. Trade Barriers. 02 October 2009. 29.12.2009. http://ec.europa.eu/trade/tackling-unfair-trade/trade-barriers/ Fair Trade Federation. Welcome To the Fair Trade Federation. 02.01.2010.http://www.fairtradefederation.org/ht/d/Home/pid/175 General Assembly. United Nations. 30 October 2009. 28.12.2009. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2009/gaef3261.doc.htm International Trade Administration. Ensuring Fair Trade. International Trade Administration. 27.12.2009. http://www.trade.gov/fairtrade/index.asp Sasseen, Jane. Economists Rethink Free Trade. Businessweek. January 31, 2008. 27.12.2009. http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/08_06/b4070032762393 .htm?campaign_id=rss_null UNCTAD. About UNCTAD. United Nations. 2002. 28.12.2009. http://www.unctad.org/Templates/Page.asp?intItemID=1530&lang=1 United Nations. International Trade. United Nations. 02.01.2010. http://www.un.org/en/development/progareas/trade.shtml Wikipedia. Doha Development Round. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 28, December 2009. 30.12.2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doha_Development_Round Wikipedia. Free Trade. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 January 2010. 28.12.2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade World Trade Organization. Doha Development Agenda. WTO. 30.12.2009.
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