Concern Over Bulgarian Arms in Iraq’s Kurdish Region
Amidst an already tense situation in Iraq, three planeloads of small arms, delivered in September to the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq, are at the center of an expanding controversy. In Kurd-controlled Sulaymaniyah, officials are discussing the implications of the imported arms in terms of regional autonomy and the long held Kurdish aspiration for an independent state. While Kurdish officials denounced allegations of subversive intent, citing the ongoing battle against terrorists as their primary motivation for obtaining the weapons, few in Baghdad were assuaged. The unclear allegiance of the Kurdish “pesh merga” militia force plays a crucial role in this situation; if clear leadership fails to emerge from a central government already plagued by a sense of illegitimacy, Iraq could easily fracture along tribal and ethnic lines. The plausible scenarios are beginning to look bleaker, and the stakes for continued American troop presence rise as Iraq hovers at the tipping point.
Zack Freundlich
