The case for Kurdish independence

Iraqi Kurdistan is holding a referendum today on whether to declare independence from Iraq, an ambition of the Kurds for decades. The vote is expected to be an emphatic victory for “Yes”, with 52.9% saying they’d vote in favour of independence and 25.6% for No, with the majority of the undecided saying they’d lean Yes. If successful, the vote will be an endorsement of support for Kurdistan and will be a significant move forward in the creation of Kurdistan, even if it isn’t recognised by some other nations in the region.

There are about 30 million Kurds in total, with approximately 5 million of them living in Iraqi Kurdistan. The Iraqi Kurds were subject to a genocide by Saddam Hussein in the 1980’s, and supported the deposition of Hussein in 2003, with Peshmerga forces a key ally of the United States. Since then Iraqi Kurdistan has been an autonomous state, though legally a part of Iraq. The Iraqi Kurds have been a crucial part of the defeat of ISIS, responsible for the bulk of successful on the ground fighting, proving one of the only reliable anti-ISIS forces in the region.

While countries such as France, Israel and Italy have expressed support for the referendum, the UK and USA have said that they wish the referendum had been delayed until after the defeat of ISIL, but have offered little comment otherwise. The other Middle Eastern states have condemned the referendum, fearing that oppressed minorities in their own states may start getting ideas and make their own attempts at independence. However the most crucial opponent of the referendum is the government of Baghdad, which naturally doesn’t want a successful separatist movement which would lead to the splitting of the country.

Very little is likely to happen in practice after the votes are cast. However the vote will be an emphatic statement in endorsement of the right to self-rule of people all across the world. The reason that the Spanish have been particularly strong in their condemnation of a referendum is because they face a similar situation with Catalonia and feel that a vote for self-determination in Iraqi Kurdistan could set a precedent for the Catalonians. In the Middle East, Turkey is likely to react badly due to the fact that it has a large Kurdish population who might be inspired by the Iraqi Kurdish vote.

The best solution to this is to allow democracy to be the arbiter of borders. Let the people decide who they are ruled by. The moment Iraq denies the right of the Kurds to independence, they are becoming an occupying hostile force denying the rights of 5 million people. Iraqi Kurdistan is a developed part of the Middle East, with a Human Development Index of 0.75, classing it as high, above countries such as Russia, and well above that of the rest of Iraq which has an HDI of 0.65. This isn’t some rag-tag bunch of separatists who want to cause trouble - it’s a people without a state who need one.

The vote is not intended to trigger independence immediately, rather to signal the start of negotiations with Baghdad to secede, once it is clear that they have popular appeal to do so. The Kurds would wish to leave with the consent of the Iraqis, who are not their enemies and have in fact been fighting alongside in the struggle against Islamic terrorism in the region.

The Kurds have done much of the work in defeating Islamic State, doing far more to fight terrorism than Western politicians have by sitting in their offices and orating about defeating ISIS ‘very, very quickly’. They have been immensely courageous in their struggle against ISIS, and it would be incredibly unfair for them to be denied statehood. The Kurds have been fighting this struggle for decades, and are one of the few truly democratic and free peoples in the Middle East. If the Iraqi government refuses to recognise their democratic will for statehood, it would be a gross denial of their right to self-determination.

#InternationalPolitics