Kurds deserve better

Just a few weeks ago the Kurds in Iraq were celebrating the outcome of a referendum that showed a large majority in favour of an independent nation. The vote was always a risk because it had been declared unlawful by the government in Baghdad and disowned by many of the nations in the coalition ranged against Isil’s collapsing “caliphate” centred on newly-liberated Raqqa. Kurdish troops played a key role in defeating the Islamists and expect to gain from their endeavours. All that has happened, however, is that their peshmerga troops have been pushed out of Kirkuk by Iraqi forces. A dangerous standoff is developing in an already volatile region which could do without another sectarian conflict.

The Kurds have wanted a nation of their own for generations, fighting for this goal within all the countries where they comprise a significant minority, namely Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. In occupying the oil-rich area around Kirkuk, however, they overstepped a line in the sand drawn by the government in Baghdad, which is desperately trying to hold Iraq together. The Kurdish plans for a homeland relied upon staying in Kirkuk, which they claimed as a future capital. There are divisions in their own ranks, however, both within the autonomous region and between Iraqi and Turkish Kurds, which often makes it difficult to know precisely what is sought.

The West does not want Iraq to fall apart and while it has backed Kurdish autonomy it has opposed statehood. But given the role the Kurds have played in the impending defeat of Isil, they deserve to be involved in talks about the future and not attacked by those armies they fought alongside.