Is This the Moment for a Greater Kurdistan?

Unrest in Syria strengthening Kurds position around region
By Mark Russell,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 2, 2012 3:03 AM CDT
Is This the Moment for a Greater Kurdistan?
In this Wednesday, March 21, 2012 file photo, Syrian Kurds who live in Lebanon who oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad, hold up Kurdish flags and Syrian revolution flags as they chant slogans against the Syrian regime.   (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)

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. (More Kurdistan stories.)

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