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KRG trench divides Syrian, Iraqi Kurds

The ditch dug by the Kurdistan Regional Government at Rojava, separating Syrian and Iraqi Kurds, adds another layer of complexity to the regional conflict.
A member of Iraqi security forces looks on during the digging operations to build a trench on the northern Iraqi border with Syria to prevent people from crossing over into Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region, on April 13, 2014 in Zakho.  AFP PHOTO/SAFIN HAMED        (Photo credit should read SAFIN HAMED/AFP/Getty Images)
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Of all those who have cursed Sykes-Picot, it was no doubt the Kurds who lamented the most, as the agreement divided a Kurdistan already split between Iran and the Ottomans and turned normal relations between villages into "smuggling." Poet Ahmet Arif put it best when he moaned, “We don’t know what passports are / for which we will be killed / from now on they will be call us bandits, brigands, smugglers and robbers.”

While talks explored the best way to unite four pieces of Kurdistan known as Bakur (north), Bashur (south), Rojhilat (east) and Rojava (west) scattered in Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria and the idea a "Kurdish spring" followed Rojava's declaration of autonomy, Kurdish hopes were again split, this time by a giant ditch.

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