Time Asia — October 10, 2017

THE RESULT WAS NEVER IN DOUBT,

but the numbers left no room for

debate: in a Sept. 25 referendum,

voters in the northern Iraqi region of

Kurdistan voted 92.7% in favor of in-

dependence. Now the trouble starts.

The referendum was an attempt

to give voice to nearly a century of

aspirations for self-determination

among the Kurds, an ethnic group of

30 million people scattered across

Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. But

there are many who do not want

that voice to be heard. The central

government in Baghdad has denied

the legitimacy of the vote, and Iraqi

Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has

threatened to isolate the Kurdish

region from the outside world. The

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WORLD

Storms gather as

Iraq’s Kurds vote

for independence

Voters celebrate in Kirkuk on Sept. 25,

after casting ballots in a referendum on

Kurdish independence

PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHRIS MCGRATH—

GETTY IMAGES