The United Kingdom, Canada, and France Must Recognize Kurdistan’s Statehood

The West Has Reacted with Indifference to Decades of Ethnic Cleansing, Forced Displacement and Other Suppression of Kurds

Downtown Erbil, a predominantly Kurdish city that is considered the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Downtown Erbil, a predominantly Kurdish city that is considered the capital of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

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Canada and France say they plan to recognize Palestine as a fully sovereign state in September 2025. The British government will follow suit unless Israel takes “substantive steps” to end the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, agreeing to a ceasefire and committing to sustainable peace. The politics are messy. But what is outrageous is how these same countries ignore the Kurds, and their more than century-long quest for self-determination.

Unlike the Palestinians, the Kurds—divided among Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and the former Soviet Union—do not even get diplomatic lip service. The international community does not endorse, let alone debate or acknowledge, their cause. Britain and France—which had a role in the partition of Kurdistan—ignore the Kurds’ right to a sovereign state.

Palestine is treated as exceptional. Why? As the late international legal scholar Karen Knop once said, “It is a function of the fact that it is a Middle East case.” And yet, Kurdistan is in the same Middle East. So, why the silence?

Western states have never proposed—even in a subcommittee—a draft resolution supporting Kurdish self-determination.

Since the founding of the United Nations, only one resolution has mentioned the Kurds: UNSC Resolution 688, passed in 1991. It referred to “Kurdish-populated areas” and condemned Iraq’s repression. No push for Kurdish sovereignty followed. These same Western states have never proposed—even in a subcommittee—a draft resolution supporting Kurdish self-determination, let alone raised the matter before the U.N. General Assembly or Security Council, or before the International Court of Justice or at the International Criminal Court. The international community met Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey’s decades of denial, ethnic cleansing, chemical attacks, forced displacement, language suppression, and forced assimilation with indifference.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish demand for Kurdistan’s statehood is grounded in the moral and legal principles the West claims to champion. Article 1 of the 1996 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights says the right to self-determination belongs to “all peoples.”

This hypocrisy is devastating.

The Kurdistan Regional Government has governed the Kurdish regions in Iraq as an autonomous entity since 1992. After the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, it emerged as a quasi-state—meeting every standard benchmark of sovereignty. With over 40 diplomatic missions and representations in its capital, and formal political and trade agreements with foreign governments, the Kurdistan Regional Government is a de facto state in everything but international recognition. It held an independence referendum in 2017, in which over 92 percent of participants voted in favor of independence. In response, Baghdad retaliated. Turkey, Iran, and Syria have imposed punitive economic and political measures. And Western democracies have remained silent, if not hostile.

Then there is Rojava, the Kurdish-led government in Syria. Since 2012, Kurds there have built one of the Middle East’s most progressive, multi-ethnic, and gender-equal governing structures —while also fighting and defeating the Islamic State. Their reward despite effective self-governance and a disciplined military force, the Syrian Democratic Forces? Turkish invasion, occupation and subsequent Turkification since 2018, isolation, and silence from states like the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Spain and Ireland. Even their basic right to internal autonomy—federalism or confederalism within Syria—is dismissed as “unacceptable.”

Why is Palestinian statehood a matter of international justice, but Kurdistan’s statehood a political inconvenience?

Both Kurdish governments are members of the international coalition against the Islamic State. The West celebrates Kurdish fighters when they die fighting terrorists and jihadists, but when Kurds demand the right to live in peace in their own sovereign state, the same governments look the other way. Western parliamentarians, congressmen, and political analysts must confront this double standard: Why are international legal norms applied selectively? Why is Palestinian statehood a matter of international justice, but Kurdistan’s statehood a political inconvenience? Why do the Kurds remain stateless despite satisfying the same benchmarks applied to other nations?

Maybe the 45 million Kurds—likely even more, since no ethnic census has ever been allowed—should stop playing by the rules. After sacrificing more than 25,000 lives fighting terrorism and extremism, after decades of being ignored, dismissed, and denied, maybe the Kurds should follow the script that seems to work: lean into Islamism, threaten Western cities, burn flags, weaponize outrage and ideology. Maybe then Canada, the United Kingdom, and France would pay attention. The Kurds are peaceful and eschew terrorism. Even in Turkey, the Kurdish military campaign was more insurgency than terror, as even European courts have acknowledged. The West should reward peace, progressivism, and construction of state capacity.

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