Kerry Warns Iraqi Kurds: Don’t Secede

[wvwvw]

Kerry Warns Iraqi Kurds: Don’t Secede
US Wants Kurdistan to 'Save Iraq'
by Jason Ditz, June 24, 2014

Meeting with leaders of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) today, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the US is opposed to Kurdish secession from Iraq.

Kerry insisted he believes that Kurdish independence would “accelerate a lot of negative trends” in the region, and in Iraqi politics in particular. KRG President Massoud Barzani has been talking up secession recently, urging Kurds to take the opportunity presented by the ongoing fighting.

Kerry envisions Kurdistan staying the course and somehow “saving” Iraq from ISIS by throwing their weight behind a new US-backed “unity” government. Iraq’s State of Law Party is going to attempt to form a new government at the end of the month.

Whether the Kurds give some nominal political support to a new post-Maliki government or not, the KRG is already one foot out the door, and likely to take the disputed city of Kirkuk, since taken by KRG Peshmerga fighters, along with the rest of Kurdistan.

[wvwvw]

ISIS Recruits Kurdish Youths, Adding to Uncertainty in Iraq’s North
Already Fearing Arab Refugees, Kurdish Distrust Grows
by Jason Ditz, June 24, 2014

As it has expanded its territory and moved closer to secession, Iraqi Kurdistan has expressed growing concerns about the Arab refugees flocking to their borders to escape the ISIS invasion, saying they believe some are sleeper cells of ISIS trying to infiltrate.

The threat of ISIS to Kurdistan is potentially more internal than that, however, as ISIS has been recruiting Kurdish youths directly, and officials say at least 150 Kurds have already joined them in recent months.

Though inside Iraq ISIS has been perceived as mostly a Sunni Arab group, the organization as a whole is a religious and not ethnic movement, and has had good success in recruiting non-Arabs from across the world.

That could be a big problem for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), which is seeking to be more insular as it moves toward secession from Iraq, but may find its independent Kurdistan bordering not only what remains of Shi’ite Iraq, but an ISIS caliphate that is openly recruiting Kurds to their side.

http://news.antiwar.com/2014/06/24/isis-recruits-kurdish-youths-adding-to-uncertainty-in-iraqs-north/

[StonyArabia]

They should actually secede, and declare Kurdistan, this will give inspiration for Ahwazis to finally be liberated, and it will bring out about the right of every group that wants independence.

[Stefan_Dusan]

Who is Kerry to make such a warning. They fucked up Iraq, why should Kurds stay in a mess?

[StonyArabia]

Who is Kerry to make such a warning. They fucked up Iraq, why should Kurds stay in a mess?

Iraq was the most developed country in the Middle East, before the war. It had the best hospitals, universities, the best women rights ect, all of that gone, due to the imposition of a sectarian religious regime after, this what has lead to Iraq's division. Iraq's many region were controlled by tribal elders who basically gave the finger to the central Iraqi government and became de facto independent since 2006. Iraq either needs a change of government or becomes a federation, if this impossible well every region will go on it's own way. If Kurdistan becomes independent, it will end Iraq, and we will see new borders change. The Kurds have already took over the disputed areas, and it's only a matter of time. The central Iraqi government tried to play the Arab card, basically using the Sunni Arabs to blockade the Kurds, but the resentment and hostility from the Sunni Arabs toward the central Iraqi government made this play in the favor of the Kurds.