(MENAFN- Alghad Newspaper)
The independence Kurdish referendum stands in the Kurdistan-Iraq province. In just a few days, despite all the regional fuss against it, be it Iran, Turkey, and the Iraqi Prime Minister's threats of military intervention, or the US leaks, the Kurds seem to have their minds made up.
It isn't clear yet, what the outcome of the poll is going to be, should it come through.
What is clear, however, is that the Kurds feel closer today than ever to making their historical dream come true.
The same goes for the Syrian Kurds, who will push for autonomy in their regions, in the least, similar to what the Kurds in Iraq had for decades.
Even with the military balance weighing in favour of the Syrian regime, the Syrian army will not be able to suppress the Kurds.
Notably, the Kurds are not the only ones making dreams come true.
The Iranians too have had an agenda, and they're crossing milestones in its realisation.
Iran's regional influence is at its peak.
Make no mistake, Iran is now a major regional power, a force to reconcile with.
The Iranians have never been closer to securing access to the Mediterranean.
The Tehran-Mediterranean route is almost fully secured, despite every American effort.
Soon, it is likely that Iran will find other regions to expand its influence and secure similar routes.
The Kurds, at least in Iraq, see the Israelis and Americans as allies.
Meanwhile, Iran has become a closer friend to many Arab Shiites than their Sunni brethren.
The Kurdish and Iranian dreams are growing.
Soon enough, their dreams will become reality.
What about ours? What about the Arab Dream?!
Nearly 20 years ago, a song featuring some of the Arab World's top artists was produced, many of us remember it; the Arab Dream.
At some point, not long ago, the nationalist sentiment predominated, uniting us all as Arabs, with an all-encompassing, cross-continental identity.
We were one; at least that's what we felt!
Solidarity was a thing, back then, and the Palestinian Cause was the Arab Peoples' first and foremost cause!
In truth, these dreams we had, once unifying and characteristic of our peoples, did not just evaporate over the decades.
The Arab sense of national, pan-national, and Islamic identity remained strongly present all throughout the decades leading up to these last four years.
Since 2013, the Arab Dream of freedom turned into a nightmare, when the ‘Arab Spring' went wrong!
We still endure the aftershocks in the aftermath of this encompassing failure.
These catastrophes which followed the implosion of the Spring laid waste to more than just states, but to societies in whole; their cultures, knowledge, and identities, all destroyed.
All of this was done in the name of preserving the status-quo, in fear of the outcome of the dreaded Arab Spring!
So, massive campaigns were launched to vilify pacifist Arab revolutions, in an attempt to make it all sound like a Zionist conspiracy.
Meanwhile, the devil's deed was dealt in the effort which sought to assassinate the dream for freedom, to see the light in the end of this ever so darkening tunnel!
Needless to say, it is not going to get better, from the looks of it!
What is left, today, of the Arab Dream?
What do our government have to offer the broken, exiled peoples, millions of whom now reside in displacement and refugee camps, striving in poverty and fear of the unknown future?!
What remains of the Arab Dream now, when many have only one option; to migrate?!
Hundreds ride the traitorous waves of danger, in a suicidal stretch to find safety. So many board the notorious boats of death, alongside their families and children, looking for home, in Europe, away from the paradise of ISIS, which has only brought death and destruction.
The only dream we have left, to change our reality, is the ISIS dream of extremism and terror; our youth have run out of options.
Naturally, this is the outcome of political marginalisation, unemployment, poverty, and suppression, under conventional, stubborn regimes that never learn!
Arab regimes do not seem to get the fact that there are certain historical inevitabilities, you resist a certain change and it will backfire, surely, and it won't be nice!
States in whole have crumbled; countries torn apart; societies fell asunder in the shadow of the Arab deterioration.
Nothing is left of the Regional System or the constructs and dynamics of regional Arab security!
There are militias inside and outside our states determining our future for us!
How does this not remind you of the end of WWI?
This article is an edited translation of the Arabic version, published by AlGhad.
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