# Kurdistan re: Turkey **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 11, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316 "2014-08-11T16:59:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/1 "2014-08-11T16:59:12Z")
I believe creating a Kurdish homeland would help alleviate the ethnic tension in Iraq. To achieve this, Turkey would lose territory. What’s the carrot we could extend to them to compensate? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/2 "2014-08-11T17:09:00Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > What’s the carrot we could extend to them to compensate? [insert your own Turkish buggery joke here] ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/3 "2014-08-11T19:38:00Z")
Give them some of ours? I’m not using West Texas much. ---
**Author:** ![yellowjacketcoder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/4bbf92/32.png) [@yellowjacketcoder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yellowjacketcoder)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/4 "2014-08-11T19:47:33Z")
European Union membership, and possibly Eurozone membership, as a start. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/5 "2014-08-11T19:49:18Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > I believe creating a Kurdish homeland would help alleviate the ethnic tension in Iraq. To achieve this, Turkey would lose territory. What’s the carrot we could extend to them to compensate? Wait - why should Turkey have to give up territory? And why is it up to us (as in the royal us, like the West and everyone else who isn’t Iraq and Turkey) to determine the solution for Iraq’s problems? If you’re not talking about how the Kurds are dealing with ISIS, which I don’t think you are, then this is a deal for the Iraqis, Kurds and perhaps the Turks to work out. But it isn’t like the Iraqi government is actively suppressing the Kurds right now, as far as I can tell; since it seems like the Iraqi government is just generally incompetent. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/6 "2014-08-11T20:02:43Z")
I agree with yellowjacket. Raven: We’re the strongest country on Earth, and should be the mediator of the inevitable dispute on the future of Iraq. Do you believe a united Iraq is viable long-term? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/7 "2014-08-11T20:10:11Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > Raven: We’re the strongest country on Earth, and should be the mediator of the inevitable dispute on the future of Iraq. Do you believe a united Iraq is viable long-term? Haven’t “we” done enough nation building in Iraq? ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/8 "2014-08-11T20:11:52Z")
Looked at the map of Kurdistan, Iran also loses territory. The carrot: loosen sanctions WRT nuclear program. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/9 "2014-08-11T20:13:50Z")
We have an obligation to leave it better than we found it. IMO, partitioning achieves that. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/10 "2014-08-11T20:16:58Z")
All that is needed to make this happen who be to stage a CIA backed coup to overthrow the Iranian government. What could possibly go wrong? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/11 "2014-08-11T20:18:43Z")
What for? We’re not trying to fatten the Kurds up, just keep 'em alive. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/12 "2014-08-11T20:21:35Z")
Silver, giving them a homeland would go a long way toward that goal, which I endorse. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/13 "2014-08-11T20:27:40Z")
I think the west, i.e. Great Britain who drew these lines with little to no regard for what they were creating and the US due to our recent efforts should make some effort to facilitate peace. And drawing national lines in a way which would have been drawn naturally is a step in the right direction. But it’s hard to imagine what could be offered to Turkey to carve off a slice (no pun intended) for the greater good. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/14 "2014-08-11T20:33:43Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > Wait - why should Turkey have to give up territory? Because the largest Kurdish population of all lives in southeastern Turkey – they want to be independent **and take their territory with them,** as independence movements usually do. See [Kurdistan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan). ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/15 "2014-08-11T20:45:50Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > I believe creating a Kurdish homeland would help alleviate the ethnic tension in Iraq. Why do you believe this? ---
**Author:** ![Knowledgable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/67e7ee/32.png) [@Knowledgable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowledgable)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/16 "2014-08-11T20:51:32Z")
Hi, I am a Jew living in Turkey. I think there should be a Kurdistan, a Kurdish homeland, where Kurds without any kind of discrimination decide for their own futures as their numbers are more than 20 million… One of the biggest races without a representative nation state. Although I don’t think Turkey will give any of its land to Kurds, I think in Syria and especially in Iraq since the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan has been established for some years now, it can be used to establish a new Kurdish state. I highly support the establishment of a Kurdish state but here’s the thing with Turkey. According to the Misak-ı Milli, which was one of the most impacting declarations before the Turkish Constitution was written it is forbidden Turkey gives any land. Sadly Misak-ı Milli has already been broken since according to it Mosul should be Turkish territory too but Iraqis have it right now. Hope this answered your question. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/17 "2014-08-11T21:00:59Z")
Sure did as I wasn’t “knowledgeable” of this history. (Pun TOTALLY intended) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/18 "2014-08-11T21:11:29Z")
We should just ask them what it would take and then negotiate from that point ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/19 "2014-08-11T21:15:46Z")
Yog: assume you mean how much, and which, territory they want? Sounds, quite reasonable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Boogly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Boogly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boogly)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316/20 "2014-08-11T21:25:57Z")
Other than, maybe, Turkey voluntarily giving up territory how would this be different from the creation of Israel? How would the fiure.of Kurdistan be different from what Israel faces? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kurdistan-re-turkey/695316.md?page=2)