Kurdistan Region's Economic Crisis from Perkins' Point of View

Dr. Kamran Mantek

2022-08-20

Dr. Kamran Mantek

John Perkins is a CIA employee who has worked in the Economic Department for more than 30 years, after his retirement he published a book about his experiences in this department titled Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (2004), which has been translated into many languages around the world, including Kurdish and Arabic.

Perkins points out in the preface to his book that the publication of the book was initially a major threat to his life and even his daughter advised him not to publish it!

 

Reading this book is very important so that one can understand American politics and even some events in the world, because Perkins himself was in the midst of events and met the presidents of the Middle East, Latin America and African countries.

 

The book discusses US policy in completing the country's economic cycle and recovering the dollars that flowed out of the country as a result of the purchase of crude oil. For this reason, he explains how to subject the economies of these countries to American control and allow them to fall under its political and military umbrella.

Perkins summarizes the essence of the policy in three points:

1. Direct dealing with heads of state: At this stage, he talks about how he went to heads of state and presented dozens of economic projects. For example, he says I talked about the project at the beginning. Then I tell the president that you will get millions of dollars, and because your son is a talented person, we will make him a director of the company. This is how we hired his relatives in the company and we will take over the country's economy!

 

2. Encouraging people to take to the streets and hold demonstrations: If the president had not agreed to the demand and had not come under pressure, they would have encouraged the people to take to the streets. That is, they exposed their shortcomings; they made accusations against him, and through freedom of thought, they brought people to the streets and spread chaos in the country until they forced him to surrender.

 

3. Use of military force: If they had not succeeded in the first two points, they would invade the country directly by military force and change the regime. He gives the example of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who was overthrown after he failed in the first two points.

 

From this perspective, we understand that the economy of Kurdistan is no longer in the hands of the Kurds themselves. In order to survive and continue to sell the country, the economic hegemony of the south was handed over to the regional occupiers of Kurdistan, the same situation that occurs in most of the oil states in the Middle East. Therefore, given the situation, now neither the oil nor the economy of the region is in the hands of the Kurds. The conflict between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad is also part of a regional struggle over Kurdistan's oil between Tehran and Ankara!

 

These two families have handed over Kurdistan's oil and economy to Turkey and Iran as brokers. For example, the 50-year agreement between Turkey and the Kurdistan Region is very similar to the agreement between the King of Saudi Arabia and US President Eisenhower in 1945. According to the agreement, the country's oil and economy were placed under the control of the United States, and in return, the family has the duty to protect itself from external and internal threats, that is, from the threat of its own people!

 

Look how the royal family lives in Saudi Arabia and how the Saudi people live, more than 50% of whom live below the poverty line! Therefore, those who do such transactions, they perceive their own people as the greatest threat to themselves. They always give their fate to the enemy and the occupation of their peoples and fall on their side!

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