Here's how to save Mosul

"There are still open wounds from the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. They have only been plastered over, but never given a chance to be healed. Maybe that is because our leaders never found an opportunity to properly address the regional problems on a long term basis, with consideration of the peoples' legitimate aspirations."

Thus spoke Anton Keller, the late Swiss diplomat who devoted a major part of his life to the Mosul question.

 He was both the founder and the international representative of the Mosul Vilayet Council (MVC), a civil society organization composed of all ethnic and religious elements in Mosul. He is the one who enabled the MVC's accreditation at the United Nations. 

Keller was right. Iraq was exposed to former President Saddam Hussein's Sunni politics for decades. During the Saddam era Kurds were massacred and Shiites were excluded. Following the U.S. intervention in 2003, Saddam was toppled and civil war erupted. This time it was the Shiites who marginalized the Sunnis. And the whole of Iraq, including Mosul, was driven to turmoil.

That is why Keller is right. Long-term policies addressing the peoples' aspirations have never been conducted in this region. As a result, today there is not only ethnic conflict in Iraq (between Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs), but also sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shiites.

You must know the phrase, "When in a hole, stop digging." If you are in a hole, the best thing to do is create a plan for getting out of the hole. For Iraq, the only way to get out of this turmoil is setting up a model that would rule out these conflicts.

Tarık Çelenk, the founder of Ekopolitik, a civil society organization specializing in conflict resolution, was also engaged in the...