Kurdistan rising

One of the side stories that doesn't get enough attention as we watch the slow-motion disintegration of Syria is the role of the Kurdish population.

The Syrian uprising is portrayed in Western media as a straightforward battle between rebels on the one hand and the armed forces of the Assad regime on the other. The Turkish news site Huriyet  however carries almost daily reports of sustained fighting between the Syrian rebels and Kurdish militias.

The Kurds are not fighting for Assad; they are fighting to ensure that what they consider the traditional Kurdish areas of Syria will not become part of a post-Assad Sunni-dominated Islamic Republic.

Meanwhile, across the border in northern Iraq, the Kurds have achieved a state in all but name. They have their own president and their own "militia" although the news that they sent 125 tanks to reinforce a standoff with the Iraqi army nearby Kirkuk yesterday suggests that "militia" is perhaps too modest a word.

Between the increasing independence of the Kurds in Iraq and the imminent independence of those in Syria, there is the outline of a unified Kurdistan that will end at the border with Turkey.

But it won't end there for long.