An ICSR (Kings College) report:
While the so-called Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ was in ruins by the summer of 2017, Kurdish fortunes appeared to be on the ascent. Nevertheless, little over a year after the supposed ‘fall of the caliphate’, both Syrian and Iraqi Kurdish aspirations have been severely tested.
Rather than delivering the desired popular mandate needed to negotiate independence, the Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum of 25 September 2017 backfired. The military and political power that the Syrian Kurds had gained while fighting ISIS has been endangered, whether due to Turkish armed intervention or the possibility that they could lose the U.S.-led coalition’s backing.
In this report, ICSR Research Fellow John Holland-McCowan seeks to highlight some of the key developments for the Kurds of Iraq and Syria as the so-called Islamic State has declined over the past year, as well as hypothesise what may lie ahead.

Link:https://icsr.info/2018/10/10/the-kur...raq-and-syria/