Ahmed Kurda | Special To Ekurd.net

Kurdsunited Investigative Team



The office of President Masoud Barzani has recently announced a campaign to tackle corruption in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This is good news on the face of it.

However, to be credible, any anti-corruption campaign must be administered through the appropriate executive branches of the Kurdistan government – not under the supervision of President Barzani’s office or his close associates and family members.

The Presidency has already marginalized the Kurdistan parliament, so it is important that the same does not happen to the executive branch. Otherwise, our institutions will mean nothing and we will all be living in a one-man show.

Moreover, for the anti-corruption process to be believed to be fair and to be genuinely impartial, it must be conducted in a professional and transparent manner and should not be used to settle political scores or to damage business rivals of the Barzani family.

TRANSPARENCY SHOULD START AT HOME

Most important of all, however, the anti-corruption process must from the start commit to transparency about the business activities of President Barzani’s own family, otherwise the whole exercise could backfire.

We say this because of one recent important episode concerning the oil business in Kurdistan that came to our attention. Our subsequent investigation into the story highlights the extent to which Barzani’s sons freely mix politics and business to the detriment of the welfare of ordinary people in the Kurdistan Region.

THE STOPPAGE OF THE KRG EXPORT PIPELINE

The export pipeline that carries oil from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to the Turkish port of Ceyhan is crucial to the Kurdistan Regional Government’s economic survival. Starved of any budget money from Baghdad, the KRG uses the revenue from its pipeline oil sales in Ceyhan to pay government salaries, fund the fight against Daesh [IS] and help the 1.8 million refugees and IDPs who took refuge in the Kurdistan Region.

So when the pipeline was shut down in February and March for 26 days due to “security reasons” in the southeast of Turkey, Iraqi Kurds surely took a big financial hit.

The Turkish authorities let it be known that the pipeline shut in was due to PKK sabotage. But, mysteriously, they offered few public details, and their explanations were doubted internationally. This fuelled speculation within the Kurdistan Region and elsewhere that the real reason for the shutting in of the pipeline was political, and was not because of PKK attacks. Indeed, the PKK denied their involvement in any such sabotage.

Many observers at the time said Turkey intended to send a message to the Kurdistan Regional Government, and in particular President Barzani, that Turkey was angry that Barzani was doing nothing against the PKK fighters sheltering in the Qandil mountains.

Sources close to Turkish security indicated that shutting the pipeline down was a reminder to Barzani that Turkey could turn the tap on and off at its will and that Barzani should take a tougher stance against the PKK presence.

WHY DID TURKEY REALLY SHUT THE PIPELINE?

However, after researching these events in depth, we can now reveal that the real reason that Turkey shut off the pipeline was to demonstrate its anger against oil smuggling that one of Barzani’s sons and his close associates were facilitating across the Iraqi-Kurdish border with areas of Syria controlled by the forces of the PKK’s affiliate organization, the YPG.

The YPG has recently taken control a number of oilfields in northeast Syria and has been selling oil across the border to fund its fight against Daesh and maintain a tight grip on the areas under its control.

Reliable sources indicated to us that at one point the YPG was trucking around 60,000 to 80,000 barrels a day across the border to Iraqi Kurdistan with the assistance of President Barzani’s son.

The YPG oil was then falsely labelled by Barzani’s son’s operatives and disguised as coming from Iraq’s Ain Zala oil field (which is under the control of peshmerga forces). The smuggled oil was then taken to local refineries in Kurdistan or sold to intermediaries and trucked to international markets via Iran.

The income generated from this cross-border smuggling benefited equally the YPG and Barzani, and none of it went to support the salaries of the KRG workers or even to benefit the peshmerga on the frontline, who watched in disbelief as the hundreds of trucks passed them every day.

We understand from our research that Turkey’s frustration, which was shared by the US, pressured President Barzani to tell his son to order a halt in the cross-border oil trade with the YPG. It was only when he complied that the KRG-Ceyhan pipeline started working again.

This was the real reason behind the pipeline stoppage.

Yet the damage to the KRG’s finances caused by Barzani junior’s greed had been already done. Even worse, following the resumption of the pipeline, Adel Abdel Mahdi, the Iraqi oil minister, ordered that the 150,000 bpd that Kirkuk oil fields had been putting into the Kurdistan pipeline before the shutdown should remain off line in order to punish the Kurds. This further strained the ability to pay salaries and other government expenses.

ORDINARY KURDS LOSE OUT ON $15M PER MONTH

Our investigation has uncovered another important matter. Iraq’s Sufaya oil field on the border with Syria mysteriously remains shut in, even after the reopening of the export pipeline. The Sufaya field lies outside the territory administered by the KRG but it is secured by peshmerga since they liberated it from Daesh control in 2015. Under the control of the KRG, the oil had been put into the export pipeline. It was producing up to 15,000 to 20,000 barrels per day.

But now, deprived of his cross-border smuggling revenue from YPG oil, Barzani’s son has taken control of the Sufaya field and is refining its oil in some of the local small refineries near the border that are said to be owned by members of Kurdistan’s political elite. He refuses to hand any revenue to the government.

People close to the oil operations say that the KRG has been trying to close these small refineries and either divert the oil into Region’s officially sanctioned refineries (where operations can be monitored and accounted for), or put it into the export pipeline.

VESTED INTERESTS BLOCK REFORM

However, the KRG’s attempts to reform the small refinery sector has faced opposition from all the many vested interests, such as Barzani’s son, and their business partners.

The 15,000 to 20,000 barrels of oil every day that is now lost to the KRG because of Barzani’s son, costs the KRG some $15m per month. This is money that can help peshmerga and their families.

Natural Resources Minister Ashti Hawrami and Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani surely must be aware of this injustice. So why have they turned a blind eye to this theft and illegal activities? Do they benefit as well?

We further say that Kurdish MPs such as Soran Omar and Azad Goran were not believed at the time when they made allegation of oil smuggling and their claims fell on deaf ears. Now the truth is out, they should be commended.

So when the Presidency of the Kurdistan Region issues decrees about reform, if he is serious let him first deal with his own sons, then with the rest of his family and their empire under the Ster Group, housed in the Ster tower in Erbil.

Because there is suspicion that this “reform” is only window dressing. Or is it a smokescreen to cover up for all the wrongdoing by his family so that he can convince the public and the international community that he can stay in his position forever?

Ahmed Kurda is the founder of the Kurdsunited Investigation Team, a group of well-connected and patriotic young Kurds based in Sulimani, Amedi, Amsterdam and the UK. We do not align ourselves with any party in Kurdistan. Only the truth matters.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

Read more about Corruption in Iraqi Kurdistan

Read more about Ashti Hawrami and Kurdistan oil

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