12 Sep 20
The post that was quoted here has been removedThe Turks seem to assume that any form of Kurdish independence would inflame the situation in Eastern Turkey. But I've always wondered if the long-term consequence of the establishment of a small independent Kurdish state (presumably with borders corresponding to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq) might actually in the end defuse the situation within Turkey's borders. There would be a "State of Kurdistan", and Turkish Kurds who felt sufficiently patriotic to wish to live there could choose to emigrate. Those who were willing to accept the status quo in Eastern Turkey could stay there.
12 Sep 20
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@teinosuke saidTein, I am sure you know there was once a Greater Kurdistan.
The Turks seem to assume that any form of Kurdish independence would inflame the situation in Eastern Turkey. But I've always wondered if the long-term consequence of the establishment of a small independent Kurdish state (presumably with borders corresponding to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq) might actually in the end defuse the situation within Turkey's borders. The ...[text shortened]... ose to emigrate. Those who were willing to accept the status quo in Eastern Turkey could stay there.
It was broken up and redistributed after WWI by some Western geniuses. Brilliant!!
12 Sep 20
@earl-of-trumps saidThere hasn't been an independent Kurdish state since the Middle Ages. Before World War I, the Kurdish territories were under Ottoman or Iranian rule.
Tein, I am sure you know there was once a Greater Kurdistan.
It was broken up and redistributed after WWI by some Western geniuses. Brilliant!!
It was in fact the victorious Western powers who envisaged a Kurdish state after the First World War; the Treaty of Sevres planned a referendum in Kurdish areas to determine its borders. However, the strategic genius of Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk, as we now know him) ensured that that treaty was never implemented. The subsequent Treaty of Lausanne recognised Turkey in its modern borders, spelling the end of Kurdish hopes for independence; but the Western powers were not in a position to oppose this by 1923.