It was only going to be a matter of time before the Kurds in post-Saddam Iraq started pushing more seriously for their own state. The 2008 Turkish incursion, and the recent Iranian incursion in pursuit of the rebel PJAK, show how unstable the current situation is. Not that the Kurds had ever given up the idea, of course, but the time was never right…until now, perhaps. They see the current regime in Baghdad as increasingly centralised and hostile to Kurdish aspirations. Bashir Assad's Syria is toppling. And then there's the example of South Sudan:
On the day the newest African nation, South Sudan, was born, Iraqi Kurdish leader Barham Salih used his iPad to tweet his feelings to the world: “Watching history in (the) making as South Sudan goes independent.”
“Moral of story, right to self-determination cannot be denied by genocide.”
With the emergence of a new nation in Africa and uprisings against autocracies across the Arab world, Kurds in Iraq’s semi-autonomous north are speaking in louder voices about the possibility of increasing autonomy if, as some Kurds fear, Iraq’s central government becomes more authoritarian.
In parts of Turkey, Syria and Iran, Kurds are also seeing new possibilities of freedom beyond governments who have historically repressed their Kurdish minorities.
“There is a lot of inspiration from southern Sudan,” said Salih, prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan, where Kurdish flags and colors — red, white and green — are far more common than the red, white and black of Iraq….
“For the first time in their modern history, the Kurds in Iraq and Turkey, at least, are cautiously ascending,” said author Michael Gunter, who has written on the evolution of Kurds in the two countries.
He said Turkey’s desire to join the European Union has forced Turkey to improve Kurdish lives in the southeast. Kurdish music is heard in Turkish cities such as Diyarbakir, and a Kurdish-language TV channel broadcasts round-the-clock.
After 27 years of conflict between Turkey and Kurdish rebels, both Kurds and Turks appear to prefer more peaceful solutions to end the hostility.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has acknowledged the existence of a Kurdish problem, long denied as a “security issue,” and promised to solve it. In June elections, Kurds won 36 parliament seats, almost double their previous total.
From the streets of Syria’s Qamishli, where Kurdish protesters call for freedom, to the Citadel in Irbil, where a Kurdish flag waves over Iraq’s biggest boomtown, many Kurds see a promising future for pan-Kurdish nationalism….
Exiled Syrian activists living in Iraqi Kurdistan are using social media tools such as Facebook, and collect donated money to support protesters at home. “If this regime falls, it would be better for the Kurds. They will be free to work in their own regions,” said Mahmoud Ya’aqub, 34, who administers Facebook groups in Irbil.
David Romano, a Middle East politics professor at Missouri State University, says the success of the Syrian revolution would have profound impact on other countries, including Iran.
“Iran will be more isolated if Syria falls,” said Romano, the author of The Kurdish Nationalizt Movement.
From a hideout high in the Qandil Mountains, Amir Karimi, a senior anti-Iran rebel leader, espouses a more radical vision.
“If Syria falls, Iran would be the next target,” he said. “Turkey would be left with two choices: Either to wipe out the Kurds completely … or surrender to reality.”
Mick Hartley 
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