Free Middle-Eastern Nations according to The Telegraph (UK)
Weren't we just in Iraq a few years back? Of course we were. Is Iraq free? Doesn't look like it at all. ISIS was just driven out of Mosul this past July, but Iraq and Syria are still a mess. This week Turkey started bombing Syrian Kurds. Who knows who's on whose team in Syria anymore. How many people are left in Syria to fight? Even Russia is sick of Syria.
There seems to be an easy solution, but no one talks about it. An independent Kurdistan.
Turks just went crazy and started screaming at me in Turkish.
Bashar al-Assad just put me on his hit list.
And Iran just declared war on Beacon of Speech.
Historically, Kurdistan has encompassed 4 countries, Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. In 3 of the 4
countries, leaders would welcome death instead up giving up one square inch of territory. Which leaves us with Iraq. After the U.S.-Iraq War devolved into an Iraqi Civil War, there are still no long term solutions for the region. I take that back, there seems to be a glimmer of hope from Mohammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia. If he comes through on his promises to make Saudi Arabia an economic engine, not just an oil producing nation, I think change can happen for the Egypt/Jordan/Saudi Arabia region. (But at the same time, Iranian missiles were fired into Saudi Arabia just last month.)
Iraq, though, has basically been at war since 1980. Iraq was held together with brute force by Saddam Hussein after a grinding decade of war with Iran in the 80's. Then there was the Iraq-Kuwait War. Then the aforementioned U.S. involvement...
Now hear me out. You wonder why refugees don't go to other Middle Eastern countries, but flood into Europe? Who's leaving Syria to go to Iraq or Saudi Arabia? And Syrians definitely ain't going to Iran. Yet an independent Kurdistan would be a different story.
The State of Israel is hated by basically everyone in the Middle East. I firmly believe that part of the reason that Israelis are hated is simple jealousy. All Middle Eastern tribes want their own city-states. Israel's area is barely over 8,000 square miles. (Slightly smaller than the state of New Jersey.) Somehow, though, they're the scapegoat for the region. Why not create a nation that SOLVES Middle Eastern problems? A 10,000 square mile Kurdistan in Northeastern Iraq could create a region that would be a magnet for the displaced Kurdish minorities.
Financially motivate Iraq to allow an already autonomous Kurdistan to secede. Iraq is one of the 50 largest countries in the world (38th) with 170,000 square miles. An independent Kurdistan would only siphon off 6% of its land area.
Iraqi Kurds voted to secede in September of 2017.....and then nothing happened.
Get Syria, Turkey, and Iran to recognize an independent Kurdistan in exchange for allowing disenfranchised Kurds to emigrate to Kurdistan. The reason those countries don't want an independent Kurdistan is none of those countries are giving up land for a new nation. Allowing Kurds to leave is quite another story.
As Kurds move to a new homeland, immigration will weaken Kurdish resistance movements in Syria, Turkey and Iran.
At this point, Iraq has to be tiring of nearly 40 years straight of War.
Promise no U.S. bases in Syria, Iraq, or Kurdistan. Make the U.S. leaving the region an incentive for all nations to play nice. (And if they don't? Well, what's new.)
The establishment of an independent Kurdish state is opposed by MAJORITIES everywhere, including by all groups in Iraq.- The Arab-American Institute
Above is an historical estimation of what a Kurdistan would have looked like today. That's not what I'm suggesting. I'm saying give the Kurds a homeland. 2018 Kurdistan would look like the map Below....
On paper, isn't Turkey our friends? Kick them out of NATO if they threaten war with a new Kurdistan. The Kurds aren't stuck between a rock and a hard place, they're stuck between 4 rocks.