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With Syria mired in civil war, Iraq still unstable, and Iran and Turkey watching warily, could this be the last, best chance for a "Greater Kurdistan?" asks Pepe Escobar at al-Jazeera. The two major Kurdish parties in Syria have already come together to run the country's northeast, in a tacit deal with Bashar al-Assad's regime to stay out of fighting in exchange for autonomy. It's a situation that's been endorsed by the president of Iraq's Kurdistan autonomous region.
Turkey remains highly opposed to Kurdish independence, but geopolitics is increasingly hemming it in, as both an Assad win and loss will embolden the Kurds. Already the United States and Israel are on board with a regional Kurdistan, and Russia and China are not terribly against the idea. "Make no mistake; each day makes it more likely that an unintended—or rather intended—consequence of this Great Game remix will be the emergence of Greater Kurdistan," writes Escobar. Click for his full piece.
