An independent Kurdish state seems unlikely, because...

A Hürriyet Daily News reader from Santa Barbara has written me a detailed and lengthy letter that actually echoes similar letters from other parts of the world.

The U.S. military cooperation with Kurdish militants against the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) in the Syrian civil war has increased interest in the Kurdish question in the Middle East among American and European intellectuals. And the fact that the militants belong to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting with NATO member Turkey since 1984, confused the minds of Western intellectuals. 

Despite being founded on a Marxist-Leninist ideology with a program to fight against "American imperialism" and "Turkish colonialism" with the goal of carving out an independent Kurdish state from the territories of Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, and being designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, the PKK is seen in some Western eyes as the best partner against ISIL terrorism.

The HDN reader, also summarizing a number of recent letters, simply opposes the "terrorist" designation of the PKK by the U.S. because they are fighting for a cause to establish a state of their own (as if ISIL is not claiming the same thing) and asks why Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria do not agree to give the Kurds land as the PKK desire instead of trying to suppress it with military power. The reader asked me to give answers to a couple of questions, and I want to share parts of it with you:

* Kurds in Turkey do not live in only one part of the country, i.e., the southeast, bordering Iraq, Iran and Syria. That is a big difference when compared with the three other countries. The biggest...