A deep investigation into the clan networks that bind Kurdistan’s political life
In an investigation for Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, journalist Lujain Al-Sultani traces how tribal loyalties continue to shape every layer of political, economic, and civic life in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. The picture that emerges is a system built not on modern state institutions but on concentric circles of kinship, family rule, and mutually reinforcing patronage networks.
The story opens with Sardar Amin, a young man with a master’s degree who cannot secure a government job, not because he lacks qualifications, but because he lacks tribal backing. In Kurdistan, researchers explain, access to state positions is determined not by merit but by affiliation, and affiliations are inherited. The closer a tribe sits to the ruling parties, the wider its access to the region’s political and economic infrastructure. The Herki tribe’s proximity to the Barzani family, for example, has guaranteed control over lucrative, oil-rich land for decades.
This logic extends far beyond hiring. Tribal networks form the skeleton of both of Kurdistan’s ruling parties. The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) has long relied on a constellation of powerful clans like Herki, Surji, Jaf, to finance, arm, and fight for it. When Jalal Talabani split to form the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the 1970s, he reproduced the same structure, a party anchored in familial power, elite backing, and closely managed tribal alliances. In this way, Al-Sultani shows, the two parties are less political institutions and more dynastic extensions of two dominant families.
The investigation situates Kurdistan within a broader Iraqi landscape where between 75 and 80 percent of citizens maintain strong tribal ties. While governance systems differ across the country, the north mirrors the south in one respect: the modern state has failed to weaken traditional power structures. Instead, it has absorbed and reproduced them.
Reports cited in the piece underline this dynamic. A 2023 study from the Netherlands Institute of International Relations shows how policies like the Investment Law, intended to support the public interest, are routinely used to allocate land to businessmen closely linked to party elites. These plots are flipped into high-value real estate projects, tightening the loop of wealth and influence around a small, tribal-party class.
Over time, tribal power has not remained parallel to state authority but has fused with it. Sensitive government and security positions often go to members of tribes aligned with the dominant party in that institution. The result, as political scientists tell Al-Sultani, is a fragmented legal and security system in which loyalty runs upward toward families and tribes rather than outward toward the public.
This fusion corrodes the idea of a civil, rights-based state. Scholars quoted in the piece argue that Kurdish parties no longer operate as ideological or policy-driven formations; they function as vehicles for family succession.
The consequences are profound. Democratic transformation slows, public participation narrows and impunity widens. Even the Peshmerga forces (the armed forces of Iraqi Kurdistan) are split into partisan units loyal to family-tribal factions. Inequality before the law becomes structural, not incidental. And while tribal mediation can occasionally resolve disputes where legal mechanisms falter, this small benefit does not offset the political and economic domination that tribal-party alliances exert over the region.
The investigation closes with a stark example, a deadly clash in Erbil between two tribes aligned with opposing parties, triggered by a land dispute but underpinned by decades of politicised tribal entanglement. It illustrates the central thesis of the piece, that tribal structures have become embedded within the state.
The original article in Arabic “البنى التقليدية المتغلغلة في كردستان” by Lujain Al-Sultani was published by published by Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on the 5th October 2025.
It available here.
Al-Araby Al-Jadeed is an Arabic-language independent news organisation covering politics, society, culture, and human rights across the Middle East and the wider Arab world. Founded in 2014, it positions itself as a progressive, anti-authoritarian outlet committed to rigorous reporting, regional analysis, and elevating underreported voices.
Summary by ZN.
