First it was Iraqi 'Kurdistan''s attempt to begin the process of realising its desire to become an independent country, by breaking away from the rest of Iraq.
The Iraqi Kurds, or, rather, the leadership of the Iraqi Kurds, doubtlessly supported by many of their people, want to have a 'country for the Kurds.'
Why, you might want to know? Well, according to some Iraqi Kurds, they, the Kurds, have nothing in common with the rest of the people of Iraq.
Or, they might have added, the 'Iraqis', ie, the Arabs, Turkomen, Christians, and others.
The Kurds are not looking for and emphasising the commonalities between them and their fellow Iraqis of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Their basic humanity and desire to build a better and prosperous, united Iraq. No, they are focusing on 'the differences', and how to maximise them.
And the matter of those Iraqi Kurds who prefer to define themselves within the more encompassing context, reality of being both Iraqis and Kurds, is of no importance.
For the ' ethnic separatists', you have only two choices; that of being Kurdish, living in 'Kurdistan', or you can go and live with the Iraqis, in the rest of Iraq,
Where you will become 'a minority', with all that that might entails. In a society steeped in inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions, and the inference that 'you are going to live with the enemy.'
The Kurdish leadership might not be seeing Kurds as Iraqis, probably perceiving themselves as being of a higher status.
And, of course, the lands of Iraq which are inhabited by predominantly Kurdish Iraqis, happen to be well blessed with black gold; oil.
And now we have the people of the Spanish province of Catalonia, who want to become independent from the rest of Spain.
Not all Catalonians wanted to have a referendum to decide whether or not Catalonia should secede from Spain.
But, like the regional government in the Iraqi Kurdish provinces of Iraq, the regional government of Catalonia has insisted on holding its illegal referendum.
And is now declaring its intention to declare the province independent, by seceding from the rest of Spain.
A kind of UDI, unilateral declaration of independence.
The like of which we would not have seen since the the then former Rhodesian Primier, Ian Smith, in 1965, declared what is now Zimbabwe, independent of Britain.
To be continued.
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