The recent events in Syria, situation in Iraq, and ongoing strain with Turkey provide another opportunity to review U.S. policy concerning the Kurdish people.\u00a0 The Kurds are an ethnic minority living in regions bridging the Middle East, Iran, and the Caucasus.\u00a0 Despite being Muslim, the Kurds have faced repeated repression and even genocide from other Muslim countries including Iraq (under Saddam), Syria, Turkey, and others.\u00a0 Consequently, some sects within the Kurdish communities have unfortunately resorted to terrorism.\u00a0 However, the majority of Kurdish communities have been pro-western, democratic leaning, hard-working people who just want to live in peace.\u00a0 Generations of repression and human rights atrocities against the Kurds has led to calls for Kurdish autonomy.\u00a0 Why is there not an independent Kurdistan in the region?<\/p>\n
Geopolitical calculations by the U.S. and European allies based on the old \u201ccold war\u201d model and efforts to promote stability among Middle East clients have left the Kurdish people without a state of their own.\u00a0 Russia\u2019s support of its ally Syria, specifically the two Assad regimes, and their relations with Saddam\u2019s Iraq provided cover to those regimes\u2019 brutal repression of their Kurdish minority populations.\u00a0 Turkey, an important NATO member and Middle East ally, vehemently opposed any Kurdish autonomy.\u00a0 Turkey fears a Kurdish state because it would enjoy a large border with Turkey and either Turkey would have to cede Kurdish territory to the new united Kurdish state or at least face significant interaction between the state and its indigenous Kurdish population along the border region.\u00a0 Turkey\u2019s security concerns have some basis in fact.\u00a0 A new Kurdish state could spurn border disputes to unite the Kurdish populations.\u00a0 However, it is unlikely a Kurdish state would want hostilities with Turkey because of more significant concerns along the likely borders of Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n
The U.S. has worked closely with the Kurds, especially since the 1990s and the Gulf War.\u00a0 From the end of the Gulf War until the removal of Saddam Hussein in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, the U.S. enforced a \u201cno-fly\u201d zone over Kurdish territory designed to prevent repression and genocide and support a move toward limited autonomy.\u00a0 In recent years, Kurdish military forces, specifically the Peshmerga, have proved extremely capable and effective in the fight against ISIS, leading the effort to liberate Iraqi and Syrian territory from ISIS brutality.\u00a0 While the Kurds owe much to the U.S. for support enabling them to maintain their limited autonomy, the U.S. also owes much to the Kurds for their loyal partnership in the region.<\/p>\n
Russia will no doubt maintain opposition to Kurdish autonomy in Syria, and thus a united, independent Kurdish state.\u00a0 However, the U.S. is in a stronger position to finally modify its position and support a Kurdish state.\u00a0 Iraq should no longer stand as a realistic obstacle.\u00a0 Iraq is succumbing to increasing Iranian influence threatening its ultimate transformation into a true democracy.\u00a0 We should focus more on the Kurds.\u00a0 More importantly, Turkish opposition should also be less of an obstacle.\u00a0 Erdogan has been consolidating power, moving Turkey away from democracy and more towards authoritarianism.\u00a0 Similarly, Turkey has been less cooperative and less supportive of NATO priorities.\u00a0 They appear to have a more cordial relationship with Russia.\u00a0 While we do not want Turkey to become a Russian client, the NATO alliance and the European Union (EU) cannot sit idly by while Turkey becomes more problematic.\u00a0 The issue here is that Turkish hostility to the Kurds should no longer carry much weight.<\/p>\n
The Kurdish people have earned and deserve an independent state.\u00a0 They should be free from the oppression and genocide that continue to threaten their future.\u00a0 The international community, led by NATO and the EU, must support Kurdish autonomy.\u00a0 The time has come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The recent events in Syria, situation in Iraq, and ongoing strain with Turkey provide another opportunity to review U.S. policy concerning the Kurdish people.\u00a0 The Kurds are an ethnic minority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[142,168,169,282,302],"class_list":["post-260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-iraq","tag-kurdish-people","tag-kurds","tag-syria","tag-turkey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whoobazoo.com\/thebooth\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}