Reasons for violating the sovereignty of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (An Analytical Study)

Abstract

This study examines the reasons for the violation of the sovereignty of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq by Turkey and Iran within a legal, political, and geopolitical framework. The first section defines sovereignty in constitutional and international law and outlines its territorial, political, and legal manifestations as reflected in the Iraqi federal constitution and its regulation of the Region’s status. The second section presents the main doctrinal theories of sovereignty and explains their impact on determining the position of the Kurdistan Region within the federal structure and on the allocation of powers concerning the administration of the Region, its borders, and its resources. The third section analyses the political, military, and treaty‑based motives invoked by Turkey and Iran to justify their interventions, and assesses the compatibility of these actions with the principles of non‑intervention and the prohibition on the use of force in international law, concluding that their continued occurrence undermines the core of Iraqi sovereignty and weakens the federal model in the Region. To reach a scientific conclusion, this study relies on analytical methods, through collecting data and information, analyzing constitutional texts related to this subject and comparing them with the principles of general international law, as well as based on the opinions of scholars in international and constitutional law.

In terms of time, this study focuses on the period after the enactment of the Iraqi Constitution in 2005 and in terms of location is devoted to the Iraqi Kurdistan Region as part of the federal territory of Iraq.

This paper consists of three parts except the introductory and concluding parts. The first part discusses the concept of sovereignty, the second part discusses the theories of sovereignty and the third part discusses the reasons for the aggression against the territory of the Kurdistan Region. Then it ends with consequences and violations.