This is Not the Time for Kurdish Independence

Jul 18, 2017 | Daniel Serwer
View Original

With the Islamic State near defeat in Syria and Iraq, the urgent and sanguinary is crowding out the merely important: the referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence, now scheduled for Sept. 25. The issue will be independence, or not. There will be no alternatives. The referendum will be held in territory the Kurdistan Regional Government controls, including oil-rich Kirkuk and other “disputed” territories. Expect upwards of 95 percent of eligible Kurdish voters to vote “yes.”

Kurds in Iraq have compelling reasons for wanting independence. Saddam Hussein pursued a policy of violent Arabization, displacing hundreds of thousands until the American-led imposition of a no-fly zone after the Gulf War deprived him of control over Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2005, two years after the U.S. invasion, the new Iraqi constitution gave the Kurdish region a wide measure of autonomy.