The other Iraq

Iraq's Kurds have remained largely insulated from the chaos in the rest of the country. Now they're seeking independence.

Kurdish flag
(Image credit: (Spencer Platt/Getty Images))

Why are the Kurds breaking away?

Ever since the U.S. invasion toppled Saddam Hussein, they've been running Iraqi Kurdistan as a semi-autonomous region, and now see the country's disintegration as an opportunity. Kurdistan is largely peaceful, safe, and, thanks to carefully invested oil wealth, increasingly prosperous. The capital, Erbil, boasts luxury apartment blocks, five-star hotels, and gleaming new shopping malls. The recent declaration of a caliphate by militant group the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), gives the Kurds — a non-Arabic, mostly Sunni Muslim people with their own language and culture — a chance to achieve their long-standing goal of an independent nation. The president of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, recently asked the region's Parliament to prepare for a referendum on breaking away. "Iraq is effectively partitioned now," he said. "Are we supposed to stay in this tragic situation?"

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