The UN Security Council has unanimously issued a statement condemning the upcoming referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan, planned for Monday. The statement accuses the vote of being “destabilizing,” and a threat to the ongoing ISIS war.
Kurdish independence ambitions are hugely controversial throughout the region and the world, though Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has made clear such a vote would take place as soon as the Iraqi war on ISIS was finished.
Iraq, Iran, and Turkey are all threatening “counter-measures” over the vote, though none are offering anything specific. Turkey has long feared Kurdish independence the most, having fought their own Kurdish minority for decades.
Beyond the Kurds, there are myriad ethnicities and regions around the world who would like to be independent. The UN Security Council’s vote is intended to reflect fears of nations across the world that, if the right to self-determination becomes commonplace, they’ll lose territory.
Oh-oh! This just bounced into the ‘Crimea’ class of referenda. Completely different from the Venezuela or Kyiv varieties – which are more like ‘revolutions’. America hearts revolutions – but if there’s voting instead of shooting involved – Putin can ‘hack’ those.