Features and limitations of the Iraqi Kurdish secessionist movement: at the state and regional levels

Abstract

This study examines the causes of the emergence of the Iraqi Kurdish secessionist movement for the creation of a sovereign state and identify the characteristics of the movement and its restrictions at the state and regional levels. With the support of the League of Nations and the United Kingdom, Iraqi Kurds were able to maintain their national existence and identity. And with the support of the UN and the US,Iraqi Kurds were able to become a political entity. These circumstances have made Iraqi Kurds one step closer to their achievement of statehood. Economic, political, social discrimination and the assimilation policy pursued by the Iraqi state to maintain the unity of the state and prevent its threat, on the contrary, revived the Kurdish secessionist movement. Given that the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum was held without the consent of the Iraqi federal government, on an unconstitutional basis only within the framework of the KRG, there is reason to believe that the Iraqi Kurdish secessionist movement is an unilateral. This shows the specifics of the Iraqi Kurdish secessionist movement. At the regional level, the inability of Turkey and Iran to support the secessionist movement of Iraqi Kurds at the most critical moment led to the сollapse of this movement. Both countries see the emergence of a new Kurdish state as a driving force in the national movement of the Kurdish people living on their territory.