In 2013 the Turkey-PKK struggle was deemed ended under the “Solution Process”, with all PKK forces withdrawn into northern Iraq. Kurdish forces have achieved international recognition and the gratitude of the people of the regions just south of the Kurdish enclave for their efforts in fighting Islamic State (IS) forces. It seems plausible now that, in due course, if IS forces are defeated, the influence of the Kurdish region will extend to Mosul and Nineveh.

With the Turkey-PKK conflict ended and Kurds sacrificing their soldiers in the struggle against IS, there is a clear mechanism for increasing the local acceptance of what will now surely be a significant military involvement, once again, in Iraq. If we formally recognise Kurdistan and then have the Kurds invite us to assist them in resisting IS, we need not conceive of ourselves as intervening in a civil war – even for the purposes of resisting genocide. Instead, we could simply be helping an ally that is being attacked.