Just posted this in response to a question on Quora:
Is Kurdistan a real country? If so, when did it become a country?
https://www.quora.com/Is-Kurdistan-a-real-country-If-so-when-did-it-become-a-country
It depends how you define “country”.
There are areas in both Iraq and Syria under Kurdish control that have de facto independence.
This has been the status quo in Syria since around 2014 during the war that occurred as a result of the regime of now deposed dictator Bashar al Assad forcibly suppressing protests for democracy in the Arab Spring uprisings.
The regime subsequently lost control of various regions of Syria to different groups, including a coalition of Kurds and others in northeast Syria (now called the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria or Rojava). Last month, 53 years of the Assad family’s despotic rule finally came to an end when the dictator and wanted criminal fled the country to seek refuge from his fellow dictator and ally Vladimir Putin in Russia (see https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/assads-final-hours-syria-deception-despair-flight-2024-12-13/)
A de facto Kurdistan has existed in northeastern Iraq since the 2003 fall of dictator Saddam Hussein, who hid literally in a hole in the ground until eventually being captured, put on trial, and executed by the new Iraqi government.
There are also Kurds in Turkey and Iran who would like independence from those countries. But so far the existing governments of the world have largely failed to respect the self-determination rights of Kurds, along with those of Taiwanese, Palestinians, Tibetans, Sikhs, Karen people, and many other peoples around the world.
Some of these groups, including Iranian Kurdistan, are represented by self-declared governments and are joined in a kind of alternative United Nations called the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization or UNPO (see https://unpo.org/members/).
The Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), aka Rojava, might have a claim to rival Argentina for being the first libertarian-administered country. I’d love to see representatives of the two meet up and support each other, issue some joint communiques.
Love & Liberty,
((( starchild )))