Kurdish dreams of a homeland are always dashed
Little has gone right since the end of the Ottoman empire
THE TREATY OF SEVRES, signed in 1920, carved the carcass of the Ottoman Empire into a number of nation states, including a “Kurdish State of the Kurds…east of the Euphrates, south of the southern boundary of Armenia as it may be hereafter determined, and north of the frontier of Turkey with Syria and Mesopotamia.” It would, said Winston Churchill, Britain’s minister of colonies, be “a friendly buffer state” between Turks and Arabs.
This article appeared in the Briefing section of the print edition under the headline “No fixed abode”
From the October 19th 2019 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionThe transactional world Donald Trump seeks would harm not help America
Ukraine, Gaza and China will all test his self-interested approach to diplomacy
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He has yet to flatly defy a court order, which would initiate a constitutional crisis

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To win future wars it needs new weapons, new suppliers and a new system of procurement
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And they are growing fast
Even in India, bureaucracy is being curtailed
Many small steps could make a big difference
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Yet radical deregulation is often a big boost to growth