Kurds

[Griff]

I got thinking about the possibility that our arming of the Kurds might push Iran and Turkey together despite their other differences. Some of the same folks who understand that economic meddling has unexpected consequences support an interventionist foreign policy. Here is a map of Kurdish populations...

[Shawnee123]

We don't know the Kurds. We don't know their ways.

Sorry Miss Muffet

[xoxoxoBruce]

Would that pull Iran into the EU? Or push Turkey out?
If the Kurds got their own real estate, maybe the all Kurds would move there, with Turkey's urging, of course.
Would a Kurdsylvania become another sore point like Israel?

[TheMercenary]

I am surprised by the size of the Kurdish population outside of Iraq. It is a much bigger part of Turkey and Iran than I had previously thought. In Iran we may be able to use that to our advantage.

[Happy Monkey]

It also shows why the Turkish government opposes Kurdish independence.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sure, they are deathly afraid the area that borders Iraq, where the Kurds have been heavily entrenched for a long time, will rise up in an attempt to join a Kurdish homeland. I believe they have expressed this openly to Washington.

The Kurds would NOT leave Turkey. Turkey would be screwed and have made that bed.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Kurds in Turkey.

Diyarbakir, Turkey is a city where Kurds rule the streets but the Turks dictate the law. The Kurdish people in this south east Turkish city do not enjoy the same freedoms as their counterparts do further down south. In the Kurdish region of Iraq, the Kurdish flag flies high and many murals around the cities of Arbil and Dohuk tell stories of the Kurds. If any Kurd made a similar attempt in Turkey to document Kurdish history, they would be incarcerated. In the eyes of the Turkish Government, being a Kurd in Turkey is not a good thing.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Kurds in Iraq

Meetings with Iraqi Arabs sometimes seem more like talking with the French. We are not enemies. But, generally speaking, there is no real personal connection. At best, our collective personalities just don’t seem to “click.” Yet by recognizing the sovereignty and inevitability of each other, we manage to cooperate toward our common interests, while not going to war when we disagree. But with the Kurds, like the Poles or the Brits, there is an easy and audible click. We have mutual goals, mutual enemies, and, also importantly, we actually like each other.

The timbre of relations between Kurds and Americans does not go unnoticed, especially by those interested in keeping the Kurds off-balance. Nobody wants a powerful and educated foe in their backyard; especially so if they hear the hammers pounding as survey stakes are driven into fertile and oleaginous soils, all while the carpenters are saying things like “I was born free. I live free. I will die free.”