Will Victory In Kirkuk Lead To A Kurdish State?

By Steve Bynum, Jerome McDonnell
Iraqi security forces and volunteers celebrate in front of Governorate Council Building in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017.
Iraqi security forces and volunteers celebrate in front of Governorate Council Building in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017. AP Photo/Emad Matti
Iraqi security forces and volunteers celebrate in front of Governorate Council Building in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017.
Iraqi security forces and volunteers celebrate in front of Governorate Council Building in Kirkuk, 290 kilometers (180 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, Oct. 16, 2017. AP Photo/Emad Matti

Will Victory In Kirkuk Lead To A Kurdish State?

By Steve Bynum, Jerome McDonnell
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Iraqi forces are now in control of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. after Kurdish Peshmerga fighters took over after a three-hour battle, according to security sources.

Larger geopolitical questions are now in play. Syria, Turkey, and Iraq do not want to see their Kurdish regions merge into a united Kurdistan.

Christine van den Toorn, director of the Institute for Regional and International Studies at the American University of Iraq-Sulaimani based in Iraq’s Kurdistan region, gives us an update on the humanitarian situation and also analysis on the question of the Kirkuk victory signaling the beginning of a Kurdish state.