"Kurds Ascending" Despite Conflich Says U.S. Professor

Newswise — In his soon to be released book "The Kurds Ascending: The Evolving Solution to the Kurdish Problem in Iraq and Turkey" (Palgrave, 2008), Tennessee Tech University political science professor Michael Gunter analyzes the solution by showing how federalism in Iraq, as well as reforms in Turkey, are playing roles.

"This book is the first to take a positive, upbeat view of the Kurds instead of treating them as eternal victims," said Gunter.

"The Kurdistan Regional Government has become an island of democratic stability, peace, and burgeoning economic progress, as well as an autonomous part of a projected federal, democratic, post-Saddam Hussein-Iraq," he said. "If such an Iraq proves impossible to construct, the KRG is positioned to become independent."

Also, Turkey's successful European Union candidacy would have the additional fortuitous side effect of granting that country's ethnic Kurds their full democratic rights that have been denied, said Gunter.

Gunter draws up-to-date conclusions based on his first-hand, long-term relationships with Kurdish leaders and opponents alike. He joined Turkish military, business and political leaders in Diyarbakir, Turkey, last month to analyze the Kurdish problem. The Kurdish Human Rights Project, the premier Kurdish rights organization in the world, recently welcomed Gunter to its advisory board. He received the Kurdish Human Rights Watch's "Service to the Kurds Award" in 1998.

Gunter will speak about the Kurds at the EU Parliament in Brussels on Dec. 3 and at the Royal Institute of International Affairs in London on Dec. 19.

Gunter is the author of five additional scholarly books on the Kurdish question. He has also published numerous articles in such leading periodicals as Middle East Journal, Middle East Quarterly, Middle East Policy, Current History and Orient.