Posted on 09/24/2017 9:40:13 AM PDT by mac_truck
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — Iraq’s Kurdish region’s controversial vote on independence will go ahead as planned on Monday, despite mounting pressure to call off the referendum, the region’s president said at a press conference in Irbil Sunday.
Masoud Barzani said that while the vote will be the first step in a long process to negotiate independence, the region’s “partnership” with the Iraqi central government in Baghdad is over.
The Kurdish region’s president detailed the abuses Iraq’s Kurds have faced by Iraqi forces, including killings at the hands of former leader Saddam Hussein’s army that left more than 50,000 Kurds dead.
“Only through independence can we secure a future where we will not have the past atrocities,” he said.
Baghdad, the United States and the United Nations have all voiced strong opposition to the vote set for Monday, warning it could further destabilize the region as Iraqi and Kurdish forces continue to battle the Islamic State group.
Turkey renewed a bill on Saturday allowing the military to intervene in Iraq and Syria if faced with national security threats, a move seen as a final warning to Iraqi Kurds.
Earlier Sunday, Iran closed its airspace to flights taking off from Iraq’s Kurdish region following a request from Baghdad. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard also launched a military exercise Sunday in its northwestern Kurdish region, in a sign of Tehran’s concerns over the vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
The brilliance of Obama Rat “Arab Spring” fractured ME stability and it is only going to get worse.
Unless America supports their independence. They would provide a FRIENDLY & STABLE forward base for positioning American forces in the region!
I hope Trump is working in the background to help make it happen. The Kurds deserve their own country, and we need to back it.
The PKK is just a bunch of ethnic communists. They dont get part of sovereign Iraq or sovereign Syria. They can integrate and live as part of those countries. We owe them nothing.
That’s a very interesting idea.
End game? This is the Middle East. The game never ends. All power to the Kurds. “Two states for two peoples.”
You know what? If the Kurds go ahead with the vote, the forces of occupation may quit likin' 'em. Even if the vote fails. And if they call it off in time, the fact that they wanted it at all could have grim consequences for Kurdish people everywhere. /sarc
exhaling.
Exhale slowly. It will be OK.
Why do you mention the PKK? The PUK is the largest political faction among Kurdish factions, isn't it?
The PKK is just a bunch of ethnic communists. They dont get part of sovereign Iraq or sovereign Syria. They can integrate and live as part of those countries. We owe them nothing.
Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria all have territory with a significant Kurdish population. None of those nations want to lose real estate to an independent Kurdistan.
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