Can the northern Iraqi administration risk going to war with the Iraqi central government or Turkey and Iran with the provocations of Israel and U.S.?

In the case that Turkey closes its airspace… Or in the case that it makes restrictions at its Mersin and İskenderun harbors…

Won’t northern Iraq turn into a desert?

What’s more is that if Turkey makes an arbitrary decision tomorrow in relation to the truck traffic in Khabur… If the traffic in Khabur drops 70 percent… Won’t the way the ordinary people, who are already in an economic crisis in northern Iraq, see the Barzani administration change?

It is certain that Barzani, who said, “Turkey is our biggest supplier. It will be the end of us if it closed its doors for a week,” is missing this truth these days. Because the forces behind him appear to give him every kind of guarantee.

While the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)/Democratic Union Party (PYD)-People’s Protection Units (YPG) corridor that is wanted to be formed in northern Syria is perceived as a threat toward Turkey’s perpetuity, wouldn’t the discussion of the integration of that corridor with northern Iraq – which is under Barzani’s control – require northern Iraq to also be considered a threatening element?

However, Turkey is predominantly silent on this matter. How right is it to limit reaction only to Kirkuk being included in the referendum?

Or, doesn’t speaking up only in terms of Turkmen rights or in the context of the rights of peoples other than Kurds downplay the issue?

Right at this point, we should ask: “Who is carrying out what kind of business  in northern Iraq and Turkey that such a major issue is being made to be perceived as a minor issue? What is the dimension of these commercial businesses that Turkey’s matter of perpetuity is being doomed to silence?”

So, can Turkey’s perpetuity be sacrificed for trade relations, or to put it more clearly, for money?

If we have identified the corridor in northern Syria as a threat, and that we have… And if there is a possibility for these two structures to merge after the referendum in northern Iraq… and there is…

Then, we need to evaluate everything that is happening in the southern and southeastern neighbors of Turkey together.

On Sept. 3, I wrote an article in this column titled, “Why Barzani openly risked suicide?” At the end of that article I had asked: “The ongoing battle between those who want to redraw the borders in our region and keep their energy corridors and power groups under control by establishing new boutique states, and the old residents of this region is further escalating. Let’s see who will win the war between those who later came to this region, forming an authority,  and the children of the region?”

Since that day, clearer opinions have formed on the kinds of effects the referendum decision taken by the northern Iraqi Kurdish government will have both on the region and Turkey.

It appears that the “independence referendum” to be held in northern Iraq on Sept. 25 will eventually crumble the will that took this decision too and throw it in the trash. The will’s spokesperson, Barzani, has been toppled from power with a covert coup. And he only aims to go down in history as “The man who held the independence referendum.” We need to know this first.

This being the case, yesterday, our newspaper, Yeni Şafak, published a very important article on the “Middle East” by Professor Zekeriya Kurşun.

Zekeriya Kurşun says, “The PKK which has been bred abroad for years and its offshoots and the organizations formed on the Turkish border, Daesh’s anti-Turkey discourse and actions and even the new pursuits in northern Iraq should all be read within this context,” and adds:

“[…]Yet, despite all the variabilities in this region, there are fixed geopolitics. This value has gained ground for itself not only through geography and history, but also within the social structure.

“The fixed geopolitical value, which is the alternative of the civilization that has established the order in the region but has failed to provide stability in the last century, is the old structure that has made it possible to form civilizations in this region. It is possible to summarize in the highly significant words written by Ottoman Empire’s Jerusalem Governor Ahmet Macid in his ‘Dahiliye Nezareti’ […] independent of all variables, he said: ‘This is the place where Moses wandered, this is the cradle of Jesus, this is where Prophet Muhammad went on the Miraj (Night Journey).’

“In brief, regardless of which order is established, which strategy is implemented, the future of the region is dependent on the values reminded by Macid, and the region will rise again in the hands of those who care about these.”

As the child of this region, Barzani could have displayed a strong stance against the invaders. The northern Iraqi Regional Government could have preferred to living in peace with its supplier Turkey and other neighbors and the other ancient peoples of the region.

However, today, it appears to have accepted to be the “partner of the invaders” through the promptings of Israel and the U.S.

What can we say, the ancient peoples of this region have embraced not those who cooperate with the invading Mongols but with Salahuddin al Ayyubi who conquered Jerusalem.