Kurdistan Seeks Seperation Dialogue With Iraq as Kurdish Forces Surround Raqqa, Syria

A new nation is about to be born from this world war, just as I have been anticipating for over year. KRG Spokesman interviewed by Turkish press says it is time to discuss an amicable divorce from Baghdad, clearly using language recently favored in the Brexit situation.

Hurriyet
The time has come for the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad to start discussing an “amicable divorce,” according to a spokesperson for the Kurdish autonomous region.

“We should enter a serious dialogue with Baghdad to reach an amicable solution – an amicable solution for divorce,” KRG spokesperson Safeen Dizayee recently told daily Hürriyet.

“We can be two good neighbors. This is something we want as the only way,” he added.

“The principle of consensus was something all sides agreed on [in 2003], but now that principle is no longer there. It is a majority-minority vote. So even if Kurds have 65 seats in Baghdad, we will always be the minority,” he said.

The central administration has also been blocking the KRG’s share in the budget, Dizayee said.

“We are always at the mercy of Baghdad and this is why we are looking to find another formula. Our budget has been cut; there is no assistance for the military. These show that we cannot work together. There is an Iraq before Mosul and post-Mosul. This is why we have to seek a solution for stability. The only way forward is to go for an independent entity in Iraqi Kurdistan,” the spokesperson said.

According to Dizayee, the only way to achieve that target is through dialogue.

“We need to enter serious conversations first with Baghdad before anybody else,” he said.

“Then hopefully with our other neighbors so that they do not see this newborn entity as a threat to their security and stability. We are talking about the borders of Iraqi Kurdistan alone. We have no ambitions of a territory in Iran, Syria and Turkey,” he said.

Perhaps the Iraqi Kurds have no interest in Syria, however the Syrian Kurds clearly have different ambitions, as the YPG led SDF has just surrounded Raqqa and blocked the Syrian army with the help of US forces from being able to reach Raqqa from the West.

Besides recapturing the dam, SDF said the U.S.-backed operation also aimed to block any advance by Syrian government forces from the west.

And today while in Turkey, SOS Rex Tillerson just alluded Assad's removal from power is no longer a pre-condition to the end of this conflict.

“I think the ... longer term status of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people,” said Tillerson at a joint conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevut Cavusoglu on Thursday, AFP reported.

I personally think the two regions will declare their independence separately, and then merge into a single entity after a few years of discussions.
We will soon see and hear more in the international news concerning a future state of Kurdistan especially in the UN.

Wow... this should get interesting very quickly...

Lot of history in the area... lot of animosity against the kurds, I wish them the best, and hope they gain their home.

I personally wish the Kurds well, but Turkey won't tolerate an independent Kurdish state. They'll immediately go to war with Kurdistan. (They already have, really. Turkish forces in Syria regularly attack Kurdish militias.) I wouldn't put it past them to start an outright genocide against the Kurds.

The way they fought.

The have earned a Homeland.

I see the YPG-led group striking a deal with Syria and Russia in the near future to become an autonomous self-governing region. Especially given their offer of aid to Syria to help end the terrorist occupation of Idlib Governate, which contains the largest amount of terrorists active in Syria. Primarily the "Free Syrian Army" Al-Qaeda factions supported by Saudi Arabia and their servile puppets.

I think it'd be the best possible outcome for both Syria and the Kurds.

originally posted by: whyamIhere
The way they fought.

The have earned a Homeland.

Yes but they are still following a false religion. Therefore the men who lead them are guaranteed nothing.

The Kurds deserve their own homeland. No other group has done more in the region to combat ISIS on their own.

originally posted by: ketsuko
The Kurds deserve their own homeland. No other group has done more in the region to combat ISIS on their own.

They most certainly are not on their own.

a reply to: Ohanka

There are other groups fighting, but the Kurds are not officially supported as far as I am aware.

a reply to: AndyFromMichigan
Turkey has pretty much declared mission accomplished. Based on the actions I have observed, part of their mission may in fact have been to help secure the land for a future Kurdish state. They do not seem to hate the Kurds in general, just attacking the militias that are like a thorn in their toe. I would infer that the assumption in the emerging Ottoman 2.0(or is it 3.0?) is if the Kurds get a nice piece of the American dream pie the PKK and YPG will make like Israel, and return to a homeland.

Turkey 'ends' Euphrates Shield campaign in Syria
Turkey says it has "successfully" ended its seven-month Euphrates Shield military campaign in northern Syria. Turkey launched the offensive last August to push Islamic State militants away from its border and also to stop the advance of local Kurdish fighters. Mr Yildirim spoke as the US secretary of state arrived in Turkey. The government in Ankara has been angered by the willingness of the US to back Kurdish fighters in Syria. The Turkish operation was also aimed at preventing the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) from gaining more ground in northern Syria. The YPG is regarded by Turkey as a terrorist organization and an extension of the PKK. Ankara fears this would fuel an insurgency being waged by the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in south-eastern Turkey.

Turkish officials warned the offensive would push the Kurdish militia out of Manbij, before moving south to Raqqa. But neither of those has happened. It is possible Turkey has got cold feet after sustaining heavy losses in al-Bab. It may also be trying to please the US secretary of state, who was in Ankara on Thursday and was likely to reiterate that Washington would not drop its alliance with the Syrian Kurds.

a reply to: whyamIhere
agreed!
a reply to: ketsuko
The Syrian Defense Forces themselves which are entirely backed by the Pentagon and NATO*, are commanded by strong Kurdish leadership, but is quite a diverse mix of domestic tribes'/clans' citizens of what Syria used to be.

[Syrian Defense Forces
The Syrian Democratic Forces (Arabic: قوات سوريا الديمقراطية‎, translit. Quwwāt Sūriyā al-Dīmuqrāṭīya‎, Kurdish: Hêzên Sûriya Demokratîk‎, Syriac: Ḥaylawotho d'Suriya Demoqraṭoyto‎), commonly abbreviated as SDF or QSD, are a multi-ethnic and multi-religious alliance of Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkmen, Circassian and Chechen[95][96] militias in the Syrian Civil War. According to a March 2017 statement of the Spokesman for the International Coalition forces, U.S. Colonel John Dorrian, 75 percent of the SDF forces fighting in Operation Wrath of Euphrates to isolate ISIL's de-facto capital of Raqqa were Syrian Arabs, a reflection of the demographic composition of that area. "The Syrian Democratic Forces are a multi-ethnic and multi-sectarian organization, and that is one of the reasons why we're working with them and they have continued to build the Arab element of their force." [153] Concerning the SDF in general, Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend in the same month said that "I’m seeing what is probably a pretty broad coalition of people and the Kurds may be providing the leadership, because they have a capable leader who’s stepped up to this challenge. And they are providing some of the organisational skill, but I see a large contingent about 23 to 25, 000 so far and growing, Arabs, who are marching to liberate their part of northern Syria. So, I don’t see a Kurdish state. I see a multi-cultural, multi-party, multi-ethnic, multi-sectarian Syrian region being liberated from ISIS. Over."[154]

During the late summer 2016 Turkish military intervention in the Syrian Civil War in the Shahba region, U.S. Special Operations Forces embedded with SDF forces in order to successfully deter Turkey and Turkish-backed jihadi rebels from attacking SDF forces south of the Sajur river.[44] Further, the United States Department of Defense confirmed that U.S. Special Operation Forces were flying U.S. flags in the town of Tell Abyad in Kobanî Canton to deter Turkish harassment shelling or attacks against SDF forces there.[171]

During the SDF's late summer 2016 Western al-Bab offensive against ISIL, the U.S. Air Force provided close combat support for SDF forces.[172]

From November, more than 300 U.S. Special Operations Forces were embedded to train and advise SDF fighters in the Raqqa offensive.[182]

On 31 January 2017, the SDF received a number of armoured personnel carriers produced by ArmorGroup and supplied by the US.[183]

In February 2017, Stephen Townsend visited Kobanî. On 25 February, the US Central Command stated that it would continue to train and equip forces of the Manbij Military Council.[184]

During the East Aleppo offensive (February–March 2017), the US deployed troops and armored vehicles to villages near Manbij in an attempt to "deter" the skirmishes between the SDF and Turkey-backed forces west and north of Manbij.[185]

Now also knowing that the establishment has used double speak for many decades now, my only conclusion is that Turkey was in fact running it back to throw the US a winning pass for the touchdown of "safe zones", or basically, Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria.

Rojava (/ˌroʊʒəˈvɑː/ ROH-zhə-VAH; Kurdish: [roʒɑˈvɑ] "the West") is a de facto autonomous region originating in and consisting of three self-governing cantons in northern Syria,[6] namely Afrin Canton, Jazira Canton and Kobanî Canton, as well as adjacent areas of northern Syria like Shahba region.[7] The region gained its de facto autonomy as part of the ongoing Rojava conflict and the wider Syrian Civil War, establishing and gradually expanding a secular polity[8][9] based on the Democratic Confederalism principles of democratic socialism, gender equality, and sustainability.[3][10][6][11]
Also known as Western Kurdistan (Kurdish: Rojavayê Kurdistanê‎)[20][21] or Syrian Kurdistan,[22][23] Rojava is regarded by Kurdish nationalists as one of the four parts of Kurdistan.[24] However, Rojava is polyethnic and home to sizable ethnic Kurdish, Arab, Assyrian and Turkmen populations, with smaller communities of ethnic Armenians, Circassians and Chechens.[25][26] This diversity is mirrored in its constitution, society and politics.[27]

*NATO's primary member states provide assistance to the US against ISIS, but not under a NATO mandate.