The Kurds, Turkey and Iran after America’s Iraq war: new possibilities?

Abstract

For the past twelve years, the Iraqi Kurds have enjoyed selfgovernment in at least part of their homelands; the Kurdishadministered enclave was to most purposes an independent state although it lacked all forms of international recognition. The Kurdish leaders never stopped proclaiming that they had no ambitions to separate from Iraq permanently; their stated political objectives could be summarized in the slogan “democracy for all of Iraq, and autonomy for Kurdistan.” And there is much, indeed, that ties the Kurds to the rest of Iraq: a common history and common perceptions such as result from enculturation in the same educational system, listening to and watching the same media, and decades of taking part in the same political system.