ABSTRACT
The root cause of the Kurdish-Iraqi conflict lies in the respective status of these two entities: as a nation without a state, in the case of Iraqi Kurdistan, and a non-nation state, in the case of Iraq. The Kurdish project stresses the Kurds’ eligibility for a nation-state while the Iraqi project stresses the unitary integrity and Arab identity of Iraq and the denial of the Kurds’ self-determination. This oppositional nature of the Kurdish and Iraqi projects has resulted in the evolution of Iraqi Kurdistan to an unrecognised quasi-state, and the devolution of Iraq into a recognised quasi-state.
