How Not to Create a State: Lessons from South Sudan to Kurdistan

Aug 25, 2017 | Diliman Abdulkader
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As the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) prepares to hold a long awaited independence referendum on September 25 of this year, it's wise to look at South Sudan to prevent dangerous scenarios regarding a future Kurdish state. South Sudan is the world's youngest nation, established in 2011, when it finally broke away from Sudan.  Similar to the KRI, it is a landlocked region surrounded by Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, the Central African Republic, and of course Sudan.  Before gaining statehood, the region experienced two civil wars, the first in 1955 and the second in 1983, which ended in 2005 and led to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement.  This agreement allowed for an autonomous region, separate from the central government in Khartoum. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) was established in 1992 with the implementation of a no-fly zone (NFZ) with the backing of the United States after the first Gulf War in 1991.  The NFZ allowed for an autonomous Kurdish region with its own borders, security, flag, constitution, parliament, and president – everything except a universally recognized border on a physical map.