KURDISTAN NOW:

Iraqi Kurds consider autonomy: After Wednesday's UN vote, Kurdish leaders are threatening to resign from the new government. (Nicholas Blanford, 6/10/04, CS monitor)

The Kurds have enjoyed effective autonomy in northern Iraq since 1991, and many are reluctant to yield their hard-won self-rule to an untested government in Baghdad.

"The Kurdish people suffered during Saddam Hussein's regime. We paid the price and now we want to enjoy democracy," says Osama Hourani, a Kurdish student at Baghdad University. "We all know Kuwait was part of Iraq and they got their independence. We speak a different language and have our own nationality but still we are not allowed this right."

Talk of Kurdish independence causes ripples of concern that spread far beyond the confines of Iraq. Turkey, Iran, and Syria all have sizable, and in some cases restive, Kurdish populations. Turkey has made it abundantly clear that it will not tolerate an independent Kurdistan along its southeast border.

"The Turks and the Iranians don't want Kurdish federalism and they are against Kurdish rights. They think it's a threat to them," Mr. Othman says.

For now, the Kurds say they are willing to remain within a federal and democratic Iraq, playing down their deep-rooted desire for an independent state.

But Mr. Dulame, the Iraqi analyst, says that eventually the Kurds will push for full independence.

"The Kurds are going to create their own state," he says. "It's just a matter of time. What they are doing now is just short-term political maneuvering."

Since Kurdistan is inevitable just recognize it now.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 9, 2004 5:57 PM