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- Title
The State That Never Was: Modern Prospects for an Independent Kurdistan.
- Authors
Thayer, Kayla
- Abstract
Kurdish nationalism has been a source of fraught debate in international politics. The politics of a Kurdish state remains highly contentious due to the wide assortment of nation-states involved in what is commonly known as the "Kurdish question." From Shaykh 'Ubaydullah's invasion of Persia in 1880 to the 2017 Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government's referendum on independence, Kurds have asserted themselves as the largest national group without a state. This analysis discusses the history of Kurdish nationalism, as well as the obstacles faced by modern Kurdish state-builders. As it stands, the prospects for an independent Kurdish state are dismal. A combination of geography, poor governance, and great power politics has made the Kurdish question a contentious, and seemingly unsolvable, problem. This analysis will assess the feasibility of an independent Kurdish state by examining Kurdish and Middle Eastern history, modern geopolitical conflicts, and the conditions in which a Kurdish state might emerge. The population of approximately 30 million Kurds live divided between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Despite their common ethnicity and the seemingly arbitrary colonial borders of the Middle East, the Kurds of each country have faced unique struggles in their quest for an independent Kurdish state.
- Subjects
KURDISTAN; IRAN; MIDDLE East; MIDDLE East history; GREAT powers (International relations); POLITICAL persecution; KURDS; GEOPOLITICS
- Publication
LOGOS: A Journal of Undergraduate Research, 2023, Vol 16, p98
- ISSN
2153-1560
- Publication type
Article