Masrour Barzani (KRG Prime Minister; senior KDP leader) — interview with the Kurdish magazine Gulan (via KDP, ~2017, ahead of the independence referendum): asserting the Kurdish right to self-determination and a NEGOTIATED, peaceful separation from Iraq — "it is time to separate peacefully and become two strong allies." [Second doc — distinct Kurdish self-determination / independence axis.]

We have the right [to an independent country] whenever we want. Many countries now recognize the history of betrayals against the people of Kurdistan and our right to self-determination.

Baghdad officials must understand that since they do not accept Kurds as their real partner in the Iraqi Federal Government, it is time to separate peacefully and become two strong allies.

[SECOND DOCUMENT for Masrour Barzani, covering a DISTINCT axis (Kurdish self-determination / independence) from his existing doc on the KRG's regional mediation role. Source: the Kurdistan Democratic Party's foreign-relations office (kdp-fro.krd) reproducing his interview with the Kurdish magazine Gulan (given while he was Chancellor of the Kurdistan Region Security Council, ahead of the 2017 independence referendum); English rendering (the interview was likely in Kurdish); tier-2; confirmed verbatim against the fetched page; "[to an independent country]" is the source's editorial clarification. Exact date not pinned (~2017), so published_date left null. CAREFUL ATTRIBUTION: this is MASROUR Barzani (now KRG Prime Minister), distinct from his father Masoud Barzani (former KRG President / KDP leader), who is named separately in the same article and is NOT the speaker here.] A distinct declared position of Masrour Barzani — Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (from 2019) and a senior KDP leader — on KURDISH SELF-DETERMINATION and INDEPENDENCE. He asserts the Kurds' inherent right to statehood — "We have the right [to an independent country] whenever we want… our right to self-determination" — and frames independence not as a hostile rupture but as a NEGOTIATED, PEACEFUL SEPARATION from Iraq: "Baghdad officials must understand that since they do not accept Kurds as their real partner in the Iraqi Federal Government, it is time to separate peacefully and become two strong allies" (clarifying elsewhere that the referendum "means showing the people's desires, not declaring independence"). This is the KURDISH SELF-DETERMINATION / "AMICABLE-SEPARATION" pole — the right to an independent Kurdistan pursued through referendum and negotiated separation, grounded in the failure of the Iraqi federal partnership — distinct from his existing document on the KRG's pragmatic regional diplomacy, and from the Arab-Iraqi parties' commitment to a unitary Iraq. [Axes: self-determination / statehood (the Kurdish right to independence; the 2017 referendum; "two strong allies"), federalism vs separation (the failed Iraqi federal partnership; peaceful separation over a unitary state), nationalism / identity (Kurdish national rights; "betrayals against the people of Kurdistan"), method (referendum and negotiated separation over force).]