Erbil, Iraq
Kurds vote to split: Iraqi Kurds voted overwhelmingly in favor of breaking away from Iraq and forming an independent country in a referendum this week— a poll strongly opposed by their neighbors and allies. Kurds inhabit a boomerang-shaped swath of territory in southeastern Turkey, northern Syria and Iraq, and western Iran, and all of those countries fear that independence for the autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan would lead to demands for a greater nation of Kurdistan. As Kurds cast ballots in the nonbinding referendum, Iran and Turkey threatened to close their borders with Iraqi Kurdistan, choking off food imports and oil exports. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan even threatened military intervention. “We may enter at night without warning,” he said. The U.S., which considers Kurdish troops key allies in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, had also opposed the referendum, which the State Department said would “increase instability and hardship for the region and its people.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said there was no chance that the vote would lead to talks on separation—even though 92 percent of Kurds voted for independence. The president of the Iraqi Kurdish region, Massoud Barzani, said his people could no longer tolerate living in a “theocratic, sectarian state”—a reference to Iran’s influence over Baghdad. Just across the border, Iranian Kurds showed their support for the vote, chanting, singing, and waving the Kurdish flag. “The historic vote has kindled the Kurdish spirit,” said the Kurdish news site Rudaw.net.