In September 2023, reports emerged that the prime minister of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) had written to President Biden calling for US mediation to save his territory. Arguing that the KRI was under growing political and economic pressure, he even warned that the region, and indeed the entire federal system in Iraq, was at risk of collapse. But what exactly lies behind this dire warning?

For many decades the Kurds have fought for an independent homeland. Having been denied a state at the end of the First World War, the territory marked out for a Kurdish state was instead divided between Turkey and Iraq. While efforts for independence continued in both countries, it has been in Iraq that the Kurds have gained their greatest success. Following the First Gulf War in 1991, they were able to carve out an autonomous region with Western support. In the following years, they built what effectively became a de facto state, and many saw it as a matter of time before they would break away. However, a referendum on independence in 2017 met with strong international opposition and the regional leadership was forced to back down. Since then, the KRI has come under increasing threat from the Iraqi central government and neighbouring Iran. On top of this, the Kurdish community is divided between two main political factions, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Having lost significant oil revenues, there are real concerns about the future of the region.

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VIDEO CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction and Titles
00:40 De Facto Statehood and Iraqi Kurdistan
02:02 The Kurdish Quest for Statehood
04:17 The Emergence of an Autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan
05:19 Kurdish Preparations for Independence, 2005-2017
06:30 The 2017 Kurdish Independence Vote
08:32 The Current Instability in Iraqi Kurdistan
11:09 Will Iraqi Kurdistan Collapse?

SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Kurdistan Regional Government
https://gov.krd/english/
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iraq
https://mofa.gov.iq/en/
Modern History of the Kurds
https://amzn.to/48Lq21t

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#Iraq #Kurdistan #MiddleEast