Kurdistan Autonomous Region


 * "Kurdistan" and "East Kurdistan" redirect here. For the wider transnational region in the Middle East/Western Asia, see Kurdistan (cultural region).

The Kurdistan Autonomous Region (Kurdish: Herêma Xweser a Kurdistanê; Arabic: منطقة كُردستان الذاتية minṭaqat kurdistān adh-dhātīyah), informally East Kurdistan (Rojhilata Kurdistanê; كُردستان الشرق kurdistān ash-sharq) or just Kurdistan (Kurdistan; كُردستان kurdistān), is the only autonomous region of the Arab Union and one of two jurisdictions outside the Arab Union's 20 republics (federated states, alongside the federal capital of Nasser City. Located in the northeast of the country, the Kurdistan Autonomous Region borders the republics of Iraq to the south and Syria to the west, as well as the sovereign states of Turkey to the north and Iran to the east. It is home to a population of approximately 7.48 million, about 75% of whom are ethnic Kurds, 10% Arabs, 10% people of mixed (mostly Kurd-Arab) heritage, and the remaining 5% split between immigrant communities and (especially Pakistanis) other much smaller communities indigenous to the region (such as Assyrians and Yazidis).

Unlike the 20 republics of the Arab Union, which share sovereignty with the federation under its constitution, the Kurdistan Autonomous Region derives its autonomy via legislation enacted unilaterally by the Arab Congress, which can theoretically abolish the devolved government at its discretion, while the same process in the republics would necessitate changing the constitution. Beyond this formality, in practice the region has the same level of autonomy from the federal government as a republic, with the government of Kurdistan functioning in much the same manner as a republican government and responsible for the same scope of internal administration. One additional area of jurisdiction is public education–in the rest of the Arab Union, public education is overseen by the federal Ministry of Education; as the autonomous region's own public education system uses the Kurdish language rather than Arabic, it is instead the responsibility of the separate Kurdistan Public Education Authority.

Politics
According to Article XIX, Parts 11–14 of the Constitution of the Arab Union, all 20 republics (the constituent federated states of the Arab Union) may grant one or more regions within the respective republic autonomous status, as long as at least 50% of the population of the region(s) in question identifies as an ethnic group or ethnic groups distinct from the mainstream national Arab ethnic identity, and the region(s) in question consist of at least three municipalities (the administrative divisions and units of local government of a particular republic). If these conditions are met, the population may legally form a "Committee on (Regional) Autonomy", responsible for informing the local population on the proposed regional autonomy and ultimately holding a referendum across the proposed autonomous region. If the referendum passes with a simple majority, as it did in Kurdistan, the Committee formally requests the republic's legislative assembly (known as a "republican congress") to pass an act of congress granting the region a devolved government of its own, formally establishing the autonomous region.

Since the success of the 2000 referendum and the subsequent 2001 establishment of the Kurdistan Autonomous Region, the 17 municipalities have come under the jurisdiction of the Kurdish Autonomous Government rather than directly under that of the Iraqi republican government in Baghdad, with virtually all governing and public administration matters in Kurdistan handled by the autonomous region, as opposed to the Iraqi government as is the case with the rest of the republic. The Iraqi National Police, which are the primary domestic law enforcement agency throughout the rest of Iraq, have jurisdiction in Kurdistan only insofar as the Kurdistan Autonomous Government permits, with the Kurdish government having its own law enforcement agency responsible for all civilian law enforcement activities within the 17 Kurdish municipalities and across the autonomous region, namely the Kurdistan Regional Police. Most other public services provided by Iraq's republican government are in Kurdistan provided instead by Kurdish agencies answerable to the Kurdish Autonomous Government. By contrast, domestic governmental services in Iraq which are instead provided by the Arab Union federal government, a common example being healthcare, are also provided by the federal government within Kurdistan.