Iraqi and Western Sahara Statehood essays

Iraqi and Western Sahara Statehood essays The state of Iraq has a turbulent history and has rarely stayed the same in its long history of different sovereign rulers over the territory. The battleground for different civilizations over centuries of political and religious rivalry, Iraq now finds itself divided into three distinct groups: the Kurds, the Sunni, and the Shia. Since its inception by the French and British in the First World War, Iraq has been a melting pot of different cultures. Yet, the Sunni population won out for control of the country in 1968 when the Ba'athis party overthrew the President Abdul Rahman Arif whose brother was responsible for the removal of the British installed Hashemite monarchy in 1958. Saddam Hussein rose to power in 1979 and installed a firm authoritative hold over the country, about the same time as the Iranian Revolution which resulted in Shi'ite Muslim theocratic state. The Ba'ath party and Saddam Hussein were primarily Sunni while they only composed about 35% of the population as oppo sed to the 65% Shia majority. The history and violence between both sects of the Islamic culture made the composition of the Iraqi state in the first place an uneasy Union. If the three main groups were split into two, there would be complications for each to cope with in order to become meet the criteria of statehood according to Article 1 of the Montevideo Convention on Rights and Duties of States 1933. The legal qualifications for the international community require that the three new states would have to possess a permanent population, establish a defined territory, a government, and the capacity to enter into legal relations with other states. Though there has been a large migration out of Iraq since the United States invasion in 2003, it is clear that there will be a permanent population in Iraq. There has always been competition for control of the land around the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Combined with the oil fields in the north and sout...