Posted on 12/27/2015 8:55:09 PM PST by Mariner
Kurdish groups meeting in southeastern Turkey called for self-rule on Sunday amid heavy fighting in the region as the army pushed ahead with a security operation in which it says more than 200 Kurdish militants have been killed.
The Democratic People's Congress (DTK), made up of Kurdish non-governmental organizations, made the call after a two-day meeting in Diyarbakir.
"The rightful resistance mounted by our people against the policies that degrade the Kurdish problem, is essentially a demand and struggle for local self-governance and local democracy," said the final resolution of the meeting, titled "declaration of political resolution regarding self-rule".
The declaration called for the formation of autonomous regions including several neighboring provinces of Diyarbakir to take account of cultural, economic and geographic affinities.
The call could escalate tensions between Kurds and the Turkish government as the government adamantly opposes a separate Kurdish state.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Will they get political support when it's most needed?
The Kurds have made a lot of friends. USA, Britain, Russia, Israel, Iraq and Iran.
Will they get political support when it’s most needed?
No way! They cannot trust Obama. Besides, Obama’s best international pal is Erdogan.
Will Iraq’s Kurds even support this move?
Politically, absolutely.
But they do not want to fight Turkey over it lest they end up like the Armenians.
They need their own country.
Erdogan with his Islamic efforts has grabbed the tiger by the ears. Let’s see if he can let go.
This was published about an hour ago on Rudaw (Kurdish website). It isn’t directly related to your article here, but gives an update on Turkey’s movement in Syria, the Islamists groups it backs in Syria, and the Kurdish situation in Syria.
http://rudaw.net/english/middleeast/syria/281220152
“The Kurds have made a lot of friends. USA, Britain, Russia, Israel, Iraq and Iran.
Will they get political support when it’s most needed?”
At present Kurds on the whole have no real friends. Only Iraqi Kurds have made “friends” because Barzani in Iraqi-Kurdistan is pretty deft at diplomatic juggling, has the ‘semi-autonomous region’ in Iraq, and sells oil to Turkey.
Other Kurds in Syria and Turkey don’t have the luxury of their own recognized land or even semi-autonomous rule as Iraqi-Kurds, and they’ve been constantly under attack.
Both Syrian and Turkish governments are very uncomfortable even with Iraqi-Kurds declaring a fully recognized Kurdistan, as is Iraq and to some degree Iran.
The US and Russia tend to keep Kurds, even in those Iraq at arm’s length. Israel might support an independent Kurdistan but currently is primarily interested in doing trade with Iraqi-Kurds.
A viable solution for the Kurds & to stop continual bloodshed would probably be to give them their own fully independent country & defined borders, probably in present day Iraq. Much easier said than done, would require serious negotiations and agreement between various Kurdish parties as well.
This could be a big move on the chessboard (Kurdish forces moving West of the Euphrates River).
The simultaneous political move by Kurds in Eastern Turkey might be coordinated to distract, suppress or exploit Turkish response to that incursion. The Kurds could potentially cut the supply lines for all of the Turkish supported rebels in Syria (including ISIS)...
Checkmate if that happens. It would be worth a lot to Assad and the Russians if they can pull it off - maybe a semi-autonomous Kurdish Regional Government in Syria, as well as Iraq.
That "Arab Spring" thing is just for Muslim Brotherhood / Clinton Foundation donors.
2016 may bring more surprises to that region, hopefully good ones!
Recently Kurds in Iraq lucked out because 30,000 Iraqi troops abandoned their posts during the Mosul offensive. So the Peshmerga had no choice but to fill the power vacuum in Iraqi Kurdistan. They’re not going to.help the Iraqis Army liberate Mosul because that’s Arab territory.
I can’t comment on that, though am now.
You’re correct to say Mosul is known to be “Arab territory”. And, Peshmerga can’t be everything to everyone at every whim - limits.
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