Kurds are a Sunni sect that occupies Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. The
Kurdish statehood of Kurdistan could never come to fruition because they are
still part of Iraq. The Kurdish mindset is tribal over anything else and they
wish to seek recognition as a tribe and independent state. The Kurds
predominately occupy a region of Iraq called Kirkuk which is known for oil.
Oil is what the Kurds need to fund their vision of becoming its own country
and they want to proclaim the mineral rights of the area they occupy.
Currently, the Kurds are not economically or politically equipped to request
statehood but overall, the biggest reason is it has too many NATO-backed
countries they are fighting against to get their statehood and if they were able
to become an actual independent country, they would have the consider how
to deal with the threat of ISIS. The opposition to Kurds having Kurdistan
goes back to post World War 1. During the war, the British and France had
an agreement called the Sykes-Picot agreement that outlined what land
would go to what country after the war (Broich, 2021). The issue the Kurds
faced because of this agreement sealed their fate of not being independent.
The British knew the Kurds were easy to control and potentially, the land
they wanted Kurdistan to be located contained a large deposit of oil. These
are the factors that made Kurdistan become nothing more than wishful
thinking. If Kurdistan was in an area that was not of any significance, an area
not blocking a port, an area with no religious history, or an area with no
minerals, their dream to become a country could be realized because it
wouldn’t be relevant or in anyone’s interest to deny them statehood.
Broich, J. (2021, January 25). Why there is no kurdish nation. The
Conversation. Retrieved May 1, 2022, from https://theconversation.com/why-
there-is-no-kurdish-nation-126243
