Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Numbering perhaps 26 million, the Kurds constitute that largest ethnic group in the world without a state to their name. Distributed (mainly) among four Middle Eastern countries (Syria, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey), the Kurds have faced relentless, sometimes genocidal, persecution over the last eighty years. In turn, the Kurds have proved a powerfully destabilizing force in each of their host countries and, consequently, in the region as a whole. The solution to the Kurdish problem lies in the creation of an independent Kurdish state in Northern Iraq. Far from constituting a source of instability in the region (as many argue) an independent Kurdistan would be a powerful force for stability in a volatile and highly strategic part of the world. This paper makes the case for Kurdish statehood based not on moral considerations (though there is clearly a strong moral case to be made) but on pragmatic grounds.