Issue:
Kurdistan has a flag. And a language, it’s called Kurdi. Iraqi Kurdistan has a president. There’s about to be elections. There is an Iraqi Kurdish parliament with over 100 members, and Iraqi Kurdish armed forces and security apparatus, which are apparently widely known to be better trained than the regular Iraqi army. The Kurdish president, Massoud Barzani, has vowed to protect Syrian Kurds from Al-Nusra rebel forces in Syria (who have connections to Al-Qaeda), and is has called for an investigation by Iraqi Kurdish political parties into reports of Syrian Kurds being killed by this group. Kurdistan has a president, a flag, and a sense of togetherness that would usually be seen in a country. But they’re not a country. The question is, will they gain independence?
How is this related to Globalisation, you may ask.
Kurdistan is not a country because of borders which were set down a long time ago. In 1920 (before the countries around Kurdistan were sure that they were countries) a treaty was written, called the Treaty of Sèvres, which would have granted autonomy for Kurdistan. It was rejected. Then, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923, and Kurdistan was split up between Iran, Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
Key Actors
The government and population of Kurdistan.
The governments of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Turkey.
Oil merchants, people involved in economics involving oil.
POLITICAL/DIPLOMATIC IMPACT
Kurdistan already has a president. He rules over the section of Kurdistan in Iraq, which has been under Kurdish rule since 1991. Relations between Kurdistan and Turkey are pretty good, they trade in oil and stuff. Relations between Kurdistan and Iraq are not quite as good. They fight over land and oil. In Syria, everything is a mess, and rebel forces are killing Kurdish people. In Iran it doesn’t seem too bad, although the Iranian police have just shut down a Kurdish language school, which isn’t very nice.
Were Kurdistan to gain independence, they would be a very rich country. Kurdistan is a very oil rich area. This is part of the reason that the other countries don’t want to give it up.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
For Kurds, the economic impact of independence would be great. They could build up their economy as a country in the way that the region in Iraq already is. They wouldn’t be affected by turmoil in their individual countries and would have less turmoil with these countries. While war is good for the economy, an ongoing war doesn’t leave much time for industry and growth.
For the countries surrounding a hypothetically newly established Kurdistan, the economic impact is not that great. Were Turkey’s deal with Kurdistan to remain they could benefit from reliability in Kurdistan, but that isn’t guaranteed. For Syria, Iran and Turkey (not so much Iraq, unless Kirkuk were to be included in Kurdistan) it would be a sudden loss of land and a sudden loss of ability to make money from this land.
SOCIAL IMPACT
There are 30 million people in the Kurdish Region of Iraq. According to the 155 000 refugees have come into this area from Syria. The separatism between Syria and Kurdistan has had a bad effect on the Kurdish people of Syria. While the Kurdish people don’t feel that it’s their fight, the Syrian rebels dislike the Kurds’ unwillingness to fight the regime. Not that Kurdistan and its surrounding countries have been super close friends in the past. Kurdish people have a history of many failed (and in Iraq and Turkey, sometimes not failed) attempts to take the land they live on as their own. Kurdish independence would mean an end to this ongoing war, although it wouldn’t mean that the countries around Kurdistan would suddenly love the Kurdish people. There could easily be more instability, especially as Kurdistan’s oil resources would mean they would be a young, yet rich country. Countries like Iraq wouldn’t want to give up their land (such as Kirkuk), and even with independence Kurdistan could continue to fight with the people of Iraq.
It also needs to be noted that drawing borders of Kurdistan would leave people who didn’t identify as Kurds but did live in a predominately Kurdish area in a difficult situation. For these people, the choice would be between moving to an area which hadn’t just become Kurdish, or living as a minority in Kurdistan in the hope that the Kurds were happy to share the land.
How have international organisations responded?
The SKS (International Support Kurds in Syria Association) was founded in 2009 and runs from the UK with the idea of ending mistreatment of Kurds in Syria.
UNHCR have created structures for and supplied food to Syrian Kurdish Refugees as they flee civil war in Syria for Iraqi Kurdistan. When a UN envoy was in Iraqi Kurdistan in June while the Iraqi PM and some ministers were visiting Erbil (the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan) the envoy said “I sincerely hope that successful discussions between the two delegations will help to resolve all outstanding issues between the centre and the region, and will lead to results that will benefit the Iraqi people,” stating only what we already know about the UN, that they are a fan of peace.
What could I possibly do to help the situation?
Become part of the Kurdistan Independence Movement (k.i.m.), learn more about it and spread the word.
sign this here online petition http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/support-kurdish-independence/
Not that much, considering Kurdistan is a long way away, already full of passionate Kurds fighting the fight, except watch and wait.
LINKS:
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/08/2013810192811431562.html
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/kurds3.html
http://rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/190920134
http://kurdistantribune.com/2012/kurdistans-independence-what-needs-be-done/
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=45655#.Ujxgb9KmiHg
Politics and All by Sylvia :) 
Great to see you’re across the Kurds, this’ll help a lot next year. Where are your other two posts though Sylvia?