This nascent state harbours a dream that a Kurdistan would be more like Norway than Saudi Arabia or Venezuela
Inside the lobby of Kurdistan’s parliament, flanked by guards in traditional baggy trousers, is a giant portrait of Mustafa Barzani. The Barzanis have been fighting for Kurdish independence since the 1880s. They battled the Ottomans, the British and Baghdad. In a colourful life, including exile in Iran and the Soviet Union, Barzani tried to establish a Kurdish state. He died in 1979, in the US. Now, it seems, his moment has finally arrived.
On one floor, technocrats are discussing how to manage Kurdistan’s enormous oil wealth. On another, the referendum announced last week by Barzani’s son, Massoud, the current president of Iraqi Kurdistan, who asked the parliament to set up a new election commission. The vote to be held later this year or early next will determine whether disputed regions taken last month by Kurdish troops should join Kurdistan, and sets the stage for Kurdistan’s exit from a crumbling federal Iraq.