Farhad Ali – Activists
The KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party) and PUK (Patriotic Union of Kurdistan) have no intention of letting the people live a dignified life. To ensure this, they have systematically implemented brutal policies, rooted in the deliberate impoverishment of the population, all to keep people dependent on their authority. The immense revenues generated in the Kurdistan Region are never fairly distributed among the people. Instead, the wealth is circulated within their own circles, while the public is left to suffer in crippling poverty.
They freely exploit the region’s resources for their own families, living like modern-day Pharaohs, while the people face a slow, silent death. Meanwhile, even the so-called opposition parties are complicit in this oppression. Every political group in the region bears responsibility for the systemic suffering of the population.
The non-payment of public sector salaries in Kurdistan is not merely an economic problem—it is a severe humanitarian and social crisis. Citizens are experiencing extreme hardship, while no political actor accepts accountability. This has led to a total collapse of public trust in the government.
In Brief – Key Causes of the Salary Crisis in Kurdistan:
- The KRG itself is the primary cause of the salary crisis.
- Disputes between Erbil and Baghdad over budget shares and oil revenues.
- Lack of a formal budget law, which prevents transparency in revenue allocation.
- Wider financial and economic collapse.
- Inflated payrolls with thousands of phantom employees who do not exist.
The Politics of Salary Cuts
In 2020, the KRG introduced policies to cut public salaries and privatize public assets like electricity and services—transferring them from state ownership to party-affiliated figures. This was a political maneuver by the KDP and PUK to further consolidate their grip on power. No state in the Middle East had ever dared to pass such extreme and devastating measures. The decision was nothing short of throwing the people into hell.
Nowhere in the world have militia-like parties ruled their people with such hostility. The KRG not only cut salaries, but later normalized partial payments, distributing half, a quarter, or nothing at all for months. This was a clear strategy to push civil servants out of their jobs and reduce the number of public employees through neglect.
Meanwhile, fuel shortages, soaring food and medicine prices, and the daily collapse of Kurdistan’s markets are direct outcomes of the KDP and PUK’s policies. These parties, under the names of ministries and government departments, have taken control of most revenue-generating sectors, especially oil, trade, and medicine.
By monopolizing key economic sectors, the KDP and PUK have made sure the wealth of Kurdistan serves their interests—not the public’s. They’ve turned their backs on using these revenues for salaries and public services, leaving ordinary citizens to suffer.
In the end, as Shakespeare might put it:
“In Kurdistan, the demons of the Region have gathered, and turned the land into a wasteland of hell.”
Good analysing