{"id":33422,"date":"2017-08-08T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2017-08-08T00:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=33422"},"modified":"2017-08-08T09:29:30","modified_gmt":"2017-08-07T23:29:30","slug":"the-case-for-kurdistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-case-for-kurdistan\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for Kurdistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The Kurds\u2014who occupy a mountainous region that includes portions of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey\u2014are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. It is time to change that.<\/p>\n

The Kurds have been making bids for statehood\u2014and having them brutally suppressed\u2014since the early 20th century. But there is a strong case for the United States, in particular, to work towards securing a homeland for the Kurds\u2014a case buttressed by Kurdish militias\u2019 indispensable contribution to defeating the Islamic State.<\/p>\n

To be sure, the establishment of a \u2018greater Kurdistan\u2019 that includes all areas where the Kurds comprise a majority remains impossible. If internal Kurdish politics were not enough to prevent such an outcome, geostrategic constraints certainly would be.<\/p>\n

Kurdish independence is particularly implausible in Turkey. The Kurds\u2019 main representative in that country, the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK)\u2014which champions a distinctly secular, Marxist brand of nationalism\u2014has been fighting the Turkish government for decades. But, the government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan, has not wavered in its commitment to preventing the establishment of a Kurdish state, to the point that even the PKK\u2019s founder, Abdullah \u00d6calan, now favors a resolution that falls short of independence.<\/p>\n

Erdo\u011fan\u2019s commitment to ending the PKK\u2019s quest is so strong that he is also working to prevent Syria\u2019s Kurds from leveraging sovereignty from their military gains against ISIS. He fears that Kurdish success in Syria would inspire Turkey\u2019s Kurds to revive their own fight for statehood in the country\u2019s southeast. This fear of nationalist spillover has driven Erdo\u011fan\u2019s campaign to create a buffer zone along the Turkish border that extends well into the territory now controlled by Syrian Kurds.<\/p>\n

But the Kurdish community in Iraq, represented by the Kurdish Regional Government, has a real shot at statehood. The KRG is a quasi-sovereign entity overseeing an efficient military and an independent economy. Although it is plagued by corruption and cronyism, like every other political organisation in the region, the KRG represents the only truly functional government in Iraq, presiding over the country\u2019s most peaceful and stable areas.<\/p>\n

The strength of the KRG\u2019s position is not lost on its leaders. The ruling Kurdish Democratic Party plans to hold a referendum on independence this September. Yet even a resounding call for secession will not be enough to achieve success. For that, the US must throw its weight behind the pro-Western KRG and offer resolute support for the independence effort.<\/p>\n

After 14 years of failed military intervention in Iraq, the US should recognise that \u2018a unified, stable, democratic, and federal Iraq\u2019, as a State Department spokesperson recently put it<\/a>, is a chimera. Since the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraq\u2019s political system has become highly polarised along sectarian lines, with the ruling Shia majority marginalising the Sunnis, including the Kurds. Indeed, Sunni exclusion was a key reason for the rise of ISIS.<\/p>\n

Today, Iraq is effectively an Iranian trusteeship, not a US ally. To the dismay of the Kurds and other Sunni Iraqis, Shia militias controlled by the Iraqi and Iranian governments, such as Hashd al-Shaabi, are filling much of the void left behind by ISIS.<\/p>\n

As the experience in Yugoslavia showed, when ethnic or religious cleavages explode, the most effective path to peace may well be separation. And a Kurdish state has a real chance of thriving: an independent Kurdistan could manage to combine natural-resource wealth with a tradition of stable and pragmatic governance, thereby creating a sustainable democracy. This would amount to a win for pro-Western forces in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

Even Turkey may be willing to accept such an outcome. The US and Turkish governments agree on distinguishing the Kurds in Iraq from those in Turkey, for whom statehood is not an option. In fact, Turkey has strong relations with the KRG\u2014bilateral trade has lately been expanding, and KRG oil pipelines extend into Turkish territory\u2014because Erdo\u011fan\u2019s government views it as a counterweight to Turkey\u2019s PKK.<\/p>\n

Moreover, now that President Donald Trump, by ending US military support for Syria\u2019s anti-government rebels, has effectively handed the country over to Russia and Iran, Sunni-led Turkey needs a strategic buffer against Shia-led Iraq and Syria more than ever.<\/p>\n

As it stands, the Trump administration\u2014not to mention Iraq\u2019s national government, led by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi\u2014claims that the Kurdish referendum, let alone secession, would destabilise Iraq. Some argue that it might even drive voters to choose a more radical Shia government in next year\u2019s elections\u2014one that would be far less accommodating towards the Kurds.<\/p>\n

But, with US backing, such an outcome could be avoided. In fact, it is in America\u2019s own interest to build a true Sunni alliance that includes an independent Kurdistan. The Palestinians, who have also spent far too long on the losing side of the Middle East\u2019s strategic game, could enrich such an alliance further.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration is eager to contain the influence of the Russia\u2013Iran\u2013Hezbollah axis in the Middle East. But it cannot achieve this objective by simply offering more arms to Saudi Arabia or its Sunni proxies. Respecting the yearning of disenfranchised and oppressed peoples\u2014beginning with the Kurds\u2014for freedom, democracy, and competent governance remains vital for a durable Western imprint on the region\u2019s future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Kurds\u2014who occupy a mountainous region that includes portions of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey\u2014are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. It is time to change …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":484,"featured_media":33426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[895,989,218,747],"class_list":["post-33422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-islamic-state","tag-kurds","tag-middle-east","tag-turkey"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe case for Kurdistan | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/the-case-for-kurdistan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The case for Kurdistan | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Kurds\u2014who occupy a mountainous region that includes portions of Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey\u2014are the largest ethnic group in the world without a state to call their own. 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