Two wise men on the Kurdish referendum

Tough and complex situations should be analyzed through the lens of experience and common sense. The recent article "The path that Turkey should take as the Kurdistan referendum takes place," written by retired ambassadors Osman Korutürk and Selim Karaosmanoğlu for the OdaTV website, is a piece that we should all read carefully nowadays.

Korutürk and Karaosmanoğlu start by emphasizing that "protecting Iraq's territorial integrity and national sovereignty has long been one of Turkey's primary Middle East policy targets, due to the dangerous and unstable nature of the region." At the same time, they also draw attention to Iraq's special status in Turkish foreign policy in terms of Ankara's political, economic and even military calculations, as Iraq stands as Turkey's gateway to the Middle East.

Here's how the ambassadors see the possible downsides of the recent Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) independence referendum:

1-It will destroy Iraq's territorial integrity as well as its political unity.

2-It will cause a more problematic environment among the different peoples in Iraq and cause new conflicts.

3-It will weaken Iraq's political weight in regional dynamics. 

In short, the article underlines that this referendum is "by no means in line with Turkey's national strategic interests."

However, the two ambassadors also highlight a critical point: "An anti-Kurdish attitude should not be among Turkey's reasons for standing against the independence referendum."

The possible new country of Kurdistan is the entity that may be hurt the most by the referendum if the KRG breaks off from Iraq. But there is another important point that Korutürk and Karaosmanoğlu draw attention to: The Arab people see...