Fall of Mosul might worsen Kurdish problem, too

The reports on June 10 were indicating Mosul, the second largest city of Iraq, near the Turkish and Syrian border is falling into the hands of the militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).

This is a new generation Islamist radical group that has been demonstrating incredible atrocities in the civil war in Syria. It was first established in 2004 against the U.S.-lead occupation of Iraq and then worked in collaboration with al-Qaeda until al-Qaeda asked the organization to disband itself and join forces with al-Nusra in Iraq. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the ISIL, rejected this offer by Ayman al-Zawahiri of al-Qaeda and stepped up its activities in the entire region.

Now it is about to capture Mosul and is threatening to capture Aleppo, the second biggest city of Syria, again near the Turkish border.

The fall of Mosul has caused deep concern in Ankara. Not only because Turkey is against the division of Iraq, which might give birth to a Shite state in the south, further empowering Iran, but a Kurdish state in the north next to its borders to set an example for Kurds in Turkey, as well as a stepped-up civil war in Iraq in addition to the one in Syria.

The fall of Mosul could revitalize an open wound in the collective memory of the Turkish state as well. The region had was not lost to foreign invasion during the War of Independence, which brought the change of Turkey’s regime from monarchy to republic in 1923, but was left to Iraq under British mandate by an agreement on June 5, 1926, almost 88 years ago this week. The young republic lead by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was intimidated by a Kurdish rebellion in 1925, which they suspected that it was manipulated by Britain, Ankara with all its resources...