... for Democratic Change.
The caution exhibited by Demirtas is understandable. Notably, at about the same time, Massoud Barzani — who maintains close ties with Ankara and recently made an appreciative remark toward the Turkish government (“Turkey assisted the [Kurdish] autonomy in its war against the Islamic State”) — also made a statement published Dec. 24 in Beirut's An-Nahar unlikely to win any favors with the Turks: “Kurdistan’s independence is a continuing process; it is our right and it is up to Kurdistan’s people.” Of course, he meant Iraqi Kurdistan, yet all the other Kurdish political forces cannot but keep in mind the situation prevailing there....
... why: 1) The Kurds have an unprecedented opportunity to achieve a political homeland; 2) Tehran's strategy of expanding Shia influence over the Sunnis is possible because of an independent Kurdistan; 3) Moscow is orchestrating an independent Kurdistan and 4) Turkey's recalcitrance against the United States and Western Europe squanders any chance of the Nabucco Pipeline going through Turkey..... Read more
... strategic positions in the entire Middle East, moving it a step closer to independence from Baghdad.
What should also be mentioned is that the ongoing Kurdish expansion process in Turkey goes hand-in-hand with Turkey’s warm relations with Iraqi Kurdistan. For Turkey, Kurdish identity at home and abroad does not pose an existential threat to its security anymore. The portion of Turkey’s Kurdish population who vote for the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party will be the tiebreaker in the upcoming presidential ...
In light of the recent developments in Syria and the apparently imminent US military intervention, the blog will take a short break from its relatively academic style and its thematic focus in order to brainstorm and share some thoughts on the broader picture of what is happening in the geopolitical arena of the region. Dangerous Double Standards Bashar al-Assad has reportedly used chemical weapons to attack, essentially, his own people. The first, logically obvious question is why would Assad essentially...
