‘Kurdish future means bigger role in Middle East’

WASHINGTON DC, United States (Kurdistan24) – A US diplomat said on Wednesday that a Kurdish future will lead to a larger role in the Middle East.

Eric Edelman, the former US Ambassador to Turkey, discussed the potential Kurdish role in the Middle East as well as US-Turkish relations.

The former Ambassador explained that the political situation in the region will change whatever the future holds for the Kurds.

“It’s clear that the region is not going to be the same…obviously, the Kurdish future has implications for Iran, for Iraq, for Syria, and for Turkey,” Edelman stated.

He also added that the “institutional shape” of the Kurds’ part in the Middle East remains unclear and is hard to calculate.

“The Kurds, whatever their ultimate future is, are going to play a much larger role,” Edelman said. “It’s a little too hard to predict, but it will be a bigger role that’s for sure.”

Edelman also addressed the reaction of Turkey post-Kurdish independence and how it will affect the country’s relationship with the US.

“That is going to be a very complicated and vexed issue for some time because the United States and Turkey are not looking at this in the same way at all,” he explained.

“They have different sets of priorities, and until those priorities are reconciled there’s going to be a lot of difficulty and static in the US-Turkish relationship,” Edelman concluded.

(Kurdistan24 team in Washington conducted the interview)