By Dr Jan Best de Vries:
After World War 1 the present borders of Iraq and Syria were drawn by respectively England and France on the basis of the presence of oil fields in these areas, their former mandates after destruction of the vilayets under Ottoman rule. So neither these present western powers nor the government in Bagdad will allow an independence of Bashur from Iraq. Until now the Kurdish regional administration of Bashur obeys Turkey to keep the Semalka border crossing with Rojava closed in exchange for food and drink from Turkey. Day and night huge trucks pass the border between Turkey and Iraq to bring these basic necessities to the inhabitants of Bashur which lacks both agriculture and livestock production and still has only oil to offer in return.
So if a referendum for independence would be successful, Turkey will follow the same tactics against Bashur as now against Rojava: complete isolation, starvation and war. Bashur will be attacked from the West and South by Iraqi and from the North by Turkish armies. Meanwhile the USA will worry about the safety of their 12 offices of oil companies in Erbil, and so it is logical that even Mr Trump will be against independence of Bashur from Iraq under the present conditions. Instead of holding a referendum, it would be wiser to offer to the Americans a military air base next to the international airport of Erbil, now that a regular access to that of Incirlik in Turkey is not guaranteed anymore, and to reopen the Semalka border crossing to rescue the population of Rojava.
Dr. Jan Best de Vries is an archaeologist and historian, decipherer of the so-called Byblos Script from Aleppo and Alalakh (‘How to Decipher the Byblos Script’, LIT Verlag, Münster 2017). He hopes to visit once more the feminist Yekitiya Star Akademiya in Rimelan to give to the recruits of the YPJ the master class in Prehistoric Women’s Cultures of his late soulmate Nanny de Vries.
Where’s respect for the Kurds where’s human rights for the Kurds where’s justice for Kurds where’s Kurdish forces peshmergas and Kurdistans 17 percent of Iraqs income what happened to article 140 of the Iraqi constitution where are the Kurdish ministers in Iraqi government? And most importantly where is United Nations EU USA and the rest of free worlds freedom and democratic principles? For the Kurds! Oh and by the way president is right in every Iraqs election the candidate who against Kurdis wins the elections