Iraq Turmoil Has One Winner: The Kurds

THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

BY SCOTT PETERSON

ISTANBUL — A Kurdish flag has replaced the Iraqi flag flying over the disputed, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, in a clear symbol of how Iraq’s Kurds have benefited from this week's turmoil. Kurdish peshmerga forces moved into areas long contested with Iraq’s central government, ostensibly to protect ethnic Kurds after Iraqi forces fled in the face of a swift offensive by Sunni jihadists. But no prize is greater than Kirkuk, a mixed-ethnicity city long viewed by Kurds as their cultural capital.

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