Foreign Politics or: how i learned to stop worrying and love the parliamentary democracy

[Andalusian girls]

as i can't stomach shoehorning Saudi Arabian liberalization into failed Turkish coups any longer-

the Krauts just finished their national elections for the 19th Bundestag and unsurprisingly Angela Merkel's CDU/CSU came in first with 33% of the vote ensuring her a 4th term as Chancellor. however that does represent a decline of 9% from the 2013 elections, and the far rightwing nationalist AfD surged to a 13% showing, earning legislative seats for the first time in its history.

to a thornier part of the world, the Kurds of Iraq just held an independence referendum which passed with an overwhelming 92% of the vote. the government in Baghdad, naturally, responded furiously threatening to impose land and air blockades on the region while authorizing the use of military force to retake disputed mixed-ethnicity lands that the Kurds had previously liberated from ISIS. the tense situation between two American allies is further complicated by Turkey's (and to a lesser extent Iran's) deep hostility to the notion of increased Kurdish sovereignty; Erdogan has likewise threatened to shut down trade and borders with the potential new state if independence moves forward.

[Talint]

Also hey the Nazis are back in government in Germany.

[Deftscythe]

So, as someone who is pretty ignorant of the situation, why did the Iraqi government hold the referendum if they had no intention of honoring the result? Surely with the vote being so overwhelmingly in favor of independence the government couldn't have been surprised. This seems like it will just turn the issue into a confrontation when simply ignoring the desire for independence would've allowed them to put things off while trying to find some other solution like maybe some token concessions to the Kurds.

[Andalusian girls]

the Kurds of Iraq have largely ruled themselves since the Gulf War and the Americans throwing up a no-fly zone in Northern Iraq to protect them from Saddam. this de facto autonomy was legally reinforced by the post-Saddam constitution, and physically reinforced when ISIS bisected the country in two and the Kurdish region was cut off from Baghdad, and they successfully resisted an ISIS advance towards their capital of Erbil without aid from the national government. it was the Erbil government that held the referendum against Baghdad's wishes.

[tyven]

y do the brown people that worship allah hate the kurds who are also brown people that worship allah

[tyven]

i know its not a shia v sunni thing so dont give me any of that lip

[archibaldcrane]

i don't even really know what kurds are other than "an ethnic group that is also muslim but different from other muslims"

and that they know how to fight

[tyven]

i don't even really know what kurds are other than "an ethnic group that is also muslim but different from other muslims"

and that they know how to fight

this is also all i know about the Kurds

[TsingTao]

I would bold the second line, but that's my basic understanding as well.

[Andalusian girls]

smh you nerds could at least hit wikipedia.

but
i'm not an expert but they're a Sunni ethnic group indigenous to a blob of territory covering Northern Iraq, Northwestern Iran, Northern Syria, and Eastern Turkey. there are between 30-40 million of them and they are decidedly non-Arabic hailing instead from the Persian regions. like many in the region they are bilingual in Arabic but Kurdish is a distinct Indo-Iranian language. over the centuries they have had various domestic kingdoms, and after the Prophet were swallowed by various Arabic/Turkish Caliphates, which is where they found themselves when World War 1 ended and the English/French decided to partition the Ottoman Empire. there were brief attempts at autonomy, always crushed by the Turks, and the Euros decided they Kurds in their mandates didn't merit their own state throwing them into newly constructed Arabic-majority Iraq and Syria instead.

as to why their neighbors are hostile to them, they are ethnically and linguistically distinct but primarily it's a matter of power. Kurds compose roughly 20% of both Turkey and Iraq and an independent Kurdistan would see the partial dismemberment of those states, Syria and Iran have similar if lesser concerns. the Turkish well has been especially poisoned as there has been an active Kurdish insurgency in Eastern Turkey for a few decades now.

and a final useless fact, the most famous Kurd in history was probably Salah ad-Din known for beating up Orlando Bloom and retaking Jerusalem for Islam.

[Zealot]

No shit? I didn't know Salah ad-Din was Kurdish. He's one of my favorite historical conquerors. I found out about him as a kid because there was a character in one of my favorite video games named Saradin and I wanted to know where the name came from.

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[tyven]

i knew all of that, hell yea. even about salad a din, i was wondering why they can't or won't assimilate into the other cultures cuz i feel like if you muslim and brown you should be down to clown. but oh well

[Andalusian girls]

asking why an Iranian peoples who speak a non-mutually intelligible language won't assimilate into Arabic and Turkish cultures is a bit like asking why the French never assimilated into their English and German overlords

[tyven]

asking why an Iranian peoples who speak a non-mutually intelligible language won't assimilate into Arabic and Turkish cultures is a bit like asking why the French never assimilated into their English and German overlords

except they did cuz the french were celts until they got buttfucked by romans who then got butt fucked by germans so in the end they are all the same. check mate turks

[tyven]

to me its weird cuz it would be like if everyone in france and spain hated the basque people and maybe they do hate the basque people but whatever. guess i'll just blame whatever is holding back the kurds on the religion of peace

[Andalusian girls]

if the Basques composed 20% of Spain and France's populaces and had been engaging in terrorism (well, more terrorism) and armed resistance for decades to become independent i imagine people would be p miffed yeah

[tyven]

south west asia needs an otto von bismarck if you ask me

[Deftscythe]

Is Salah Ah-Din the guy you can play as in Civ?

[tyven]

Is Salah Ah-Din the guy you can play as in Civ?

in Civ 6 at the very least. I only played 5 and 6

[tyven]

Also Kingdom of Heaven is such a fucking dope movie I watch it like once a year and I hate to rewatch movies