In his first major comments on the matter since Iraqi Kurdistan’s late September vote to secede from Iraq, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spoke on state TV after meeting with Turkey’s President Erdogan. He said the two nations have to take steps to prevent the Iraqi Kurds from declaring independence.
Over 92% of Iraqi Kurds voted in favor of secession, with a high voter turnout. The Iraqi government has rejected the idea of accepting it, and has been working with Turkey and Iran to claim all border crossings between Kurdistan and the outside world.
It’s not surprising Iraq’s major neighbors are working with them on this. Both Turkey and Iran have substantial Kurdish minorities with their own ambitions for self-determination, and neither wants to set up the precedent of Kurds getting to be a state.
Iraqi Kurdistan appears to already be out the door, with their government saying there is no going back to Baghdad, while Iraq’s parliament has authorized the use of soldiers to try to bring the Kurds back under direct control.
Get your popcorn ready.
Apparently he has not read the story of the king who tried to roll a stone uphill.
Why can’t 30 to 40 million Kurds have a state ? less than a million and half Albanians got a state in Kosovo . As a matter we bombed Yugoslavia so they could have a state .. Why don’t we bomb Turkey , Iran and Iraq so the Kurds can have a big state . Don’t we really believe in self determination and democracy .
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. So goes the political alliances in the middle east. They are like a weather vane which ever way the wind blows. Today you’re an ally of the west. Tomorrow you’re allied with radical Islam to thwart the wishes of the great satan.