The Kurdish Problem in the Modern Politics of Iraq, Syria and Turkey: a Comprehensive Analysis

Abstract

Currently, the Middle East is undergoing significant changes, often due to a mixture of global and regional factors. The study is devoted to the current policies in the Middle East, in the ethnogeographic area of Kurdistan. The study researches numerous parties (political entities) of the Kurds of Iraq, Syria and Turkey, considers the events that took place in Kurdistan in 2022 and 2023. The central government of Iraq receives new levers of pressure on the leadership of the Kurdish Autonomy. At the same time, the Turkish leadership refuses to resume oil exports. Although the government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pursues its own goals, in this case the actions of Ankara and Baghdad coincide. Relations between the Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan remain tense on a number of issues. During the adoption of the budget law, the latter actually opposed the idea of Kurdish autonomy in Iraq. In Syria, the autonomy of the Kurds (Rojava) will exist as long as the United States maintains its presence. The Syrian government is promoting the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Syria as a precondition for restoring relations with Ankara. Turkey refuses, because the Syrian Democratic Forces are not controlled by the Damascus. Thus, the Syrian Kurds are the stumbling block of the post-war settlement in Syria. In Turkey, there is a split between the opposition and pro-government Kurds. The opposition is divided into legal and illegal. Because the government of R. T. Erdoğan won a landslide victory in the presidential elections, there is no reason to believe that a softer course will be adopted against the Turkish Kurds.