The idea of convening a Kurdish National Congress of Kurds from "four parts" in the Iraqi Kurdistan — or South Kurdistan — town of Erbil that has become the Kurdish national center goes back four years.

What is meant by "four parts" are the four countries Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, where the Kurds have been forced to live without their own state despite their sizable populations and geographical continuity. An important element in the injustices heaped on the Kurds occurred after World War I, when Western colonial powers reshaped the region on the rubble of the Ottoman Empire with the creation of Persian, Arab and Turkish nation states (Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey). But this doesn’t mean one should overlook the Kurdish social structures that are vulnerable to divisions, tribal rivalries, internal conflicts and their feeble national consciousness that enhances such injustices.

The game changer was probably the emergence of the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] as a quasi-independent Kurdish entity after 2003. The KRG, with Massoud Barzani as its elected president, thus became what can be called a "national center"’ for Kurds all over the world.

This is why convening a Kurdish national congress goes back years and is attributed to Barzani. When in 2009 Turkey decided on an "opening to Kurds" in a manner that foresaw the ultimate settlement of the Kurdish issue, it attached its hopes on the Kurdish national congress. Turkey was aware that for decommissioning, disarming and finally disbanding the PKK, it had to be an all-Kurdish national decision that could only be taken through a national Kurdish congress to be convened under the auspices of Barzani. Turkish government and Iraqi Kurdish officials have been discussing how to convene this Erbil meeting that will be oriented to the final goal of disarming the PKK.