Peregraf- Surkew Mohammed
The upcoming cabinet of Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is under huge pressure by both Turkey officials and Kurdistan's President, Nechirvan Barzani, to let Ashti Hawrami stay as KRG’s Natural Resources Minister.
The Prime Minister-designate of the KRG, Masrour Barzani, who is currently at the last phase of forming the new cabinet of the government, is not backing Ashti Hawrami to stay in his ministerial position. However, he cannot endure all the pressure especially when he knows Turkey is the only gate for Kurdistan towards the world oil market and Ankara has the key of Kurdish oil. In addition, the oil revenue would be the main income for Masrour’s cabinet, similar to previous cabinets.
A high-ranking source, who is aware of the influences, told Peregraf "Turkey continuously presses to make Ashti Hawrami Natural Resources Minister again. The new cabinet is also under considerable pressure by Nechirvan Barzani with the same demand."
The source also states that Masrour Barzani does not want Ashti Hawrami to remain as the minister, "he wants to keep the media and opponents away from this ministry. In order to do so, firstly he wants the minister to be changed."
The source, who asked to remain anonymous because he is not allowed to speak to the media, also said "Masrour Barzani has accepted under pressure, to let Ashti Hawrami stay as minister at least for the first two years of his cabinet."
Ashti Hawrami, the first and only Natural Resources Minister, was appointed minister in May 2006, and reappointed in the sixth cabinet on 28 October 2009 following the July 2009 Kurdistan Region parliamentary elections. He was reappointed in the seventh cabinet, on 5 April 2012.
Ashti Hawrami is thought to be the mastermind of exporting Kurdish oil to the world market with the support of former PM Nechirvan Barzani.
Hawrami has faced numerous criticism during the time he served as minister as many Kurdish observers believe that many of the oil industry projects in Iraqi Kurdistan are conducted in a non-transparent way, some have even described them as secretive.
Independent oil export and monetization routes were the major projects of Nechirvan Barzani during his service as PM. Although he has left the government, he wants to exert his influence in the oil sector by reappointing Ashti Hawrami as the minister.
Independent oil export through Turkey has angered the central government of Baghdad as they had cut KRG’s budget in 2014. Until now, tensions remain between Erbil and Baghdad.
Although exporting oil through pipelines has created a strong economic relation between KRG and other countries, especially Turkey, however it did not have significant effect to lower pressure on Kurdish officials during the independent referendum of Kurdistan.
At the time, Turkey's President Erdogan threatened to invade Iraq and cut off oil pipelines after Kurds vote for independence. He said the "separatist" referendum was unacceptable and that economic, trade and security counter-measures would be taken, "After this, let's see through which channels the northern Iraqi regional government will send its oil, or where it will sell it. We have the tap. The moment we close the tap, then it's done."
Hence, Masrour Barzani might not bear the pressure and neglect Turkey’s demands when forming his new cabinet.