One group, Sunni Arabs, which has built up a substantial military force with external assistance and which claims to be addressing long years of subjugation, crosses over the Iraqi-Syrian border, occupies towns and cities and unilaterally, with no basis in law, declares a new state, and this is met with almost universal derision.
While another group, Iraqi Kurds, which has built up a substantial military force with external assistance and which claims to be addressing long years of subjugation, crosses over the KRoI's border, occupies towns and cities and announces its intentions to unilaterally, with no basis in law, declare a new state, and many say "Hmmm, could be, why not?".
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As to those who like to claim "No one ever asked the Iraqi Kurds if they wanted to be a part of Iraq. The Kurds are always forced to be in Iraq."
In the 2005 referendum on the Iraqi constitution, the constitution which describes Iraq as a united country with the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRoI) a part of this united Iraq, voters in the Duhok, Erbil, and Sulaymaniyah Governorates, which make up almost all of the KRoI, voted 99% for the constitution.
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Some Turkish Kurdish and Syrian Kurdish leaders have begun to state their opposition to the current push for independence by some in the KRoI saying that if the KRoI declares independence in the near future some countries in the region and the world will use its existence as justification for disregarding Turkish Kurdish and Syrian Kurdish efforts to improve their political status. Other countries, they believe, will say "Look, there is a (tiny) Kurdistan over there. What more do you want?".
Many Turkish and Syrian Kurds also believe that were the KRoI to declare independence the unwelcome efforts of some in the KRoI's leadership to impose their leadership and their political and economic positions on Turkish and Syrian Kurds would only increase.
There has long been hostility between some of the factions in power in the KRoI and Turkish and Syrian Kurds.
One of the main reasons is that these factions in the KRoI are conservative and rightist, the KRoI has become essentially a free market paradise for foreign companies and is very proud of it too, while Turkish and Syrian Kurds are leftist.
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I wrote much more about the KRoI and independence here:
Iraqi Kurdistan: Will it go for independence? Part III