Kurdistan

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) says it played a decisive role in blunting the Islamic militants' sweep through Iraq, which triggered U.S. air strikes to halt their advance.
    
"This war will continue until we finish off the Islamic State," said Rojhat, a PKK militant speaking from a hospital bed in Arbil, the capital of the Kurdish region in Iraq.
    

"The right policy is neither Arabist, nor Kurdist," according to Murat Özçelik, Turkey’s former ambassador to Baghdad.

The West is in alarm because of the threat from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Issues like protecting Yazidis and other minorities are being evaluated. Meanwhile, measures to keep ISIL from directing a threat to Europe and the U.S. are being discussed.

Despite the ongoing official cease-fire between the security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), southeastern Turkey witnessed two blasts on Aug. 18.

Germany is opposed to the formation of an independent state by Iraq's Kurds, who are currently battling Islamic State jihadists with Western help, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Sunday.
      

Three policemen were killed in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır at a road accident while they were going to escort famous singer Rojin.

It was June when Kurds came closest to gaining their dream of independence. Northern Iraqi Kurds captured the oil-rich Kirkuk following the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s (ISIL) assault on Mosul on June 10. Following this, the President of Iraqi Kurdistan, Masoud Barzani, declared they would hold an independence referendum soon.

Ankara has called on Washington to permit Iraqi Kurdish oil sales to support them in their battle against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants, Financial Times (FT) reported on Aug. 14.

Oil production from Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) remains unaffected despite an incursion by Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants along the autonomous region's border, its Ministry of Natural Resources said in a statement on August 9. 

“Life is what happens to you while you are busy making other plans,” John Lennon once said. This is exactly what is happening in the Middle East today. While states are forming their Iraq and Syria policies, the uncontrollable rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) turns the plans upside-down. Policies are being remade over and over again.