Although the current chaos in Iraq has brought the Kurds there closer to their long-held dream of independence, it has not brought them unity. While Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), campaigns for Kurdish independence, other Kurdish political groups have taken a different position, in particular the KDP’s main rival, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
Thanks to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki’s plans for new provincial divisions the country’s continuing unity is under threat, writes Salah Nasrawi