Kurds edge towards statehood, with Turkish, Israeli help

[KamaAina]

http://fortune.com/2014/06/20/kurds-edge-towards-statehood-with-turkish-israeli-help/

The world may be focusing on the looming battle for Baghdad between Sunni militants and Shia-led government forces, but the real dismemberment of Iraq may be happening further north, where the region of Kurdistan looks more and more like making its own dash for statehood.

The predominantly Kurdish population in northern Iraq has had to fend largely for itself since last week, when Iraqi government forces, retreating before the advance of the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant (ISIL), abandoned the region’s biggest city and oil hub Kirkuk, and left it, along with a big part of the country’s oil reserves, in the hands of the Kurdish Regional Government and its “peshmerga” militia units.

A motivated and homogenous bunch, the peshmerga appear more than capable of holding their own against ISIL, the militant Sunni group that is now threatening Baghdad after taking Mosul, Iraq’s second city.

But to be viable, a Kurdish state would need to be able to get its biggest commercial asset, crude oil, to market, in violation of a 2004 deal (brokered by the U.S.) on sharing the revenue from oil sales with the Baghdad government. With government forces not able or willing to defend Kurdistan against ISIL, than deal now looks worthless to the Kurds.

edit: This is a bit of a surprise, as Turkey has long struggled with its own independence-minded Kurdish population in its southeast.

[Renew Deal]

1. The Turks hope the Kurds move out If Kurdistan is created in Iraq.