Kurds and the Israel-Iran clash: New openings or old dangers?

Whether the ongoing regional turbulence will yield any gains for the Kurds remains to be seen.

(Image credit: AFP via The New Region website)

A sad common denominator across all the states ruling over the Kurds—from Iraq and Iran to Turkey and Syria—as well as among many intellectual and media elites of the dominant ethnic and religious groups monopolizing power in those states, is the relentless fear mongering against Kurds. Instead of engaging in such behavior and tossing out accusations of separatism and partition, these actors ought to look in the mirror. They should ask themselves what they continue to do wrong that might push Kurds to consider seeking external alliances or to seize on shifting regional dynamics created by war to challenge a repressive and exclusionary status quo.

Although a ceasefire now holds after the 12-day Israel–Iran showdown, the June 13 Israeli strikes deep into Iranian territory shattered a decades-old regional taboo. For the first time since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988, Israel directly hit Iran’s military infrastructure on a mass scale—signaling that the previous status quo no longer applies, and that new regional possibilities—and dangers—are emerging.

Read the full article on The New Region's website:

https://thenewregion.com/posts/2575