The Kurdish Question: Assessing the Plausibility of Statehood

Abstract

The state is the most important political entity on the global stage today. There are over two hundred states in the world today, most whom are members of the United Nations. They come in all shapes and sizes of populations and territories, as well as different forms of government. Statehood grants a country legitimacy under international law, the capacity to enter into diplomatic and economic relations with foreign states, and the ability to participate in the global economy and other institutions. Even so, statehood is an exclusive privilege: who has the right to statehood is a constant subject of debate. From the East fringe of the Taurus Mountains in Turkey to the western peaks of the Zagros, spanning the borderlands of Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran, lies the land of the Kurds. Today, the Kurdish people number between 25 to 30 million, making them the largest nation without a state to call their own. For the better part of a century, they have been denied their ethnic identity, treated as outsiders by their Arab countrymen and heretics in spite being predominantly Sunni Muslims. They have been persecuted, played as pawns against their states by outside powers, and then left for dead once their strategic and politic utility expired. There is no country that looks out for the welfare of the Kurds, and so they have made dozens of calls for secession. Though a Kurdish state would protect the integrity of the Kurdish people and their human rights, the creation of a Kurdish state brings with it as many challenges as solutions.