Once an oasis of stability in Iraq, the Kurdish north is increasingly a source of unrest. Because of the misrule of Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq (KRG) who may go down as the Yasser Arafat of the Kurdish people, the region is becoming a danger both to the country and to its own people. The contrast between Barzani and Iraq's president, Jalal Talibani, is striking. Talabani, the scion of Kurdish Iraq's other political dynasty, has spent the years since liberation from Baathist rule in Baghdad, earning a reputation as one of the great uniters of a fractious Iraq, often serving as mediator between the various sects, the Americans, and others in the region. Massoud Barzani, on the other hand, has spent the past five years amassing power and influence in Erbil, the capital of the increasingly independent Iraqi Kurdistan. There he has focused on conducting oil deals beyond the reach of the central government, and has refused to cooperate with Turkey to combat the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorists that operate from safe haven in territory ostensibly under his control.
The Misrule of Massoud Barzani: Iraqi Kurdistan’s Yasser Arafat
