JSPES, Vol. 39, No. 4 (Winter 2014)
pp. 397–435

The Legal Status of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in International Law

Loqman Radpey

Allameh Tabataba'i University
Tehran, Iran

The Kurds in Iraq have always been suppressed by the governments ruling the country and have been through many hard stages over the past century. They have struggled for a state of their own but never fulfilled that dream. Kurds have experienced autonomous and independent states, but these did not survive. In the Treaty of Sèvres (1920), they had the right to self-determination, with independent statehood, but the treaty was never ratified. It was eventually replaced by the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), which made no mention of Kurdish statehood. Upon the invasion of U.S.-led forces into Iraq in 2003, the world turned its attention to the Middle East, and especially to the north of Iraq, Kurdistan. This region has been controlled by Kurds since the withdrawal of Saddam Hussein’s forces in 1991. With the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, there is a great opportunity to achieve their goal. Kurdish Parties have established the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), and the world has recognized it as a de facto state. To be a new nation-state in the international community and recognized as a de jure state under international law, it must meet various qualifications, some of which have already been satisfied by the KRG.