One resident remembers speaking out when the Iraqi Kurdish flag went up over his school. He was told to stop talking before he got everyone in trouble. A massive Kurdistan flag was erected last December at the entrance to the town, just meters from where the car bombs exploded Wednesday night.
A year ago, in November 2011, Iraqi Kurdistan began to intensify its claim to Bashiqa, controversially including it in their already highly controversial oil contract with multinational company Exxon Mobil – which was declared illegal by Baghdad.
This was the first contract the Iraqi Kurdish authorities had dared to sign with a large international oil company and it was a move that provoked the wrath of Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki.
Al-Maliki was further angered when Ninawa’s governor, Atheel al-Nujaifi, gave the deal his blessing, publically saying it was good for the province. Over the past year, the contract has been one of the most contentious issues between Baghdad and Erbil.
Currently it seems that Exxon Mobil, possibly fed up with being scolded by Baghdad for signing that deal and no doubt, with other problems in the Iraqi oil bidding process, has decided to sell its extremely valuable West Qurna 1 oil field in southern Iraq and explore exclusively in Iraqi Kurdistan.
And as Ninawa and oil deals like Exxon Mobil’s appear to be slipping out of Baghdad’s grasp, the federal government will certainly look for ways to push back and exert more power over the province, especially before the April 2013 provincial elections. And it’s possible that Bashiqa - a disputed territory, now part of the Exxon Mobil deal - could be a good place for al-Maliki to start that campaign.
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