Should there be a Kurdish State?

[Bereta_Eder]

Does anyone have a map with said territory?

[Ming]

Draw a line starting on the east in Halabja, move west to Kirkuk and then northwest to Mosul.

It seems like the Kurks are already in control of this area.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Ming
And maybe Turkey would try to stop it, but I'm not sure the Americans will go to war with these current allies...

We don't have to. We just have to stand by and do nothing.

[Bereta_Eder]

Thanks Ming.

So there're about half the size of Syria in Northern Iraq.
I don't think it will not be viable unless of course there're problems with the trade.

Just the oil it will have will make it quite a comfy place economically I'd imagine.

[Bereta_Eder]

BTW the Kurds of Iraq really worship you. They have US flags flying along with theirs.

[Bereta_Eder]

with rocky

[germanos]

Yes, the Kurdish state must be.

First of all, the Kurds allready have a hard fought state in northern Iraq since the dramatic end of their uprising against the Iraqi central government in 1991.
It will be unwise to try to turn that back, let alone difficult to achieve. The Kurds will not be very happy if they get screwed again by foreign powers, and rightly so.

The turks should keep their mouths shut. They would do wise to allow kurdish representation in their own parliament, but instead they have chosen over and over again to jail the members of parliament that were elected in their own elections. Furthermore they should drop their rediculous hostile and oppressive attitude to the Kurds. They don't even allow them to speak their own language, which is just examplatory of the repression the Kurds have to suffer in Turkey.

What exactly the legal solution should be is difficult to say, but I guess the road that led to an independent East Timor could be an example, or possibly Iraq should become a Union of States (yes like the US), which could result in both the territorial integrity of Iraq as well as self-governance of the kurds.

[Ming]

The Kurd seem to be in total control of the area I have indicated. With US troops still in limited support of them, I don't think Turkey will want to attack... They actually have their state right now if they play their cards right. There are more than enough resources to make their state viable.

And the real funny part of this is, that they owe it all to Turkey. With Turkey not allowing the US to use their country to base operations into Northern Iraq, the US has only been able to put limited troops in place, and most of the fighting has been done on the ground by the Kurds... Granted, they got a lot of air support, but they are the ones currently in charge in these regions on the ground.

[germanos]

The Kurds owe the lands they currently hard to a very large degree to their own struggle, in spite of the Turks

The autonomous region in northern Iraq has been de facto a independent state for over ten years now.
And it is economically viable, as they have proven in the very same period.
Did anybody here see the HUGE colums of oiltrucks that were lined up between the turkish and Iraqi/Kurdish borders just at the outset of this war when the borders were closed ? The columns of the 3rd Inf. dwarved in comparison.

[Bereta_Eder]

Kurds - USA: talking about love here

[Bereta_Eder]

Kurds again... (where do they find all those US flags with all those things on them?!)

[Japher]

One problem: If the Kurds take N. Iraq, and plan on sqwatting there with all that oil, how will the get it out? I amm sure they have the ability to draw the oil, but they have no sea lanes to transport the oil! This would surely lead them to another fight over a coastal are from which to conduct trade.

[Ming]

Well... I guess I had my facts wrong. Mosul is not yet in Kurd hands. The remaining Iraqi forces are in the process of working out a surrender. So the Kurds will control it shortly, but are not yet in charge there.

[Worthingtons]

The Turks ruthlessly invaded the great land of Cyprus - so a part of Turkey should be given to the Kurds as that's equality!!!. If the Turks dont like it then they give the rest of Cyprus back to the magnificent people of Cyprus , sure - it'd take 100 years for it 'catch up' technology wise but Cypriots should have thier land back.

Cheers
Matt

[germanos]

Originally posted by Japher
One problem: If the Kurds take N. Iraq, and plan on sqwatting there with all that oil, how will the get it out? I amm sure they have the ability to draw the oil, but they have no sea lanes to transport the oil! This would surely lead them to another fight over a coastal are from which to conduct trade.

Japher,
there are other ways of getting your oil to its destination without fighting a war...

It's called...TRADE...