An article in the Armed Forces Journal, published in the United States, has suggested the Middle East map should be redrawn “according to the situation of the ethnic minorities.”

In an article written by retired Army Lt. Col. Ralph Peters, it was claimed that the redrawing of the borders drawn by Westerners would correct the “injustice” in the region.

Suggesting a free Kurdistan to be established on the Turkish, Iraqi, Iranian and Syrian territory in this frame, Peters suggested such a state “stretching from Diyarbakir through Tabriz would be the most pro-Western state between Bulgaria and Japan.”

Peters also suggested a sort of Muslim super-Vatican to be established in Mecca and Medina.

In his article, Peters stated no adjustment of borders, however draconian, could make every minority in the Middle East happy.

The retired US lieutenant colonel maintained that the most glaring injustice was the absence of an independent Kurdish state and claimed “the eastern fifth of Turkey should be viewed as occupied territory.”

The Kurds of Syria and Iran as well as Turkey “would rush to join an independent Kurdistan if they could” and the refusal by the world's legitimate democracies to champion Kurdish independence was a human-rights sin, Peters claimed.

The US and its coalition partners “missed a glorious chance” to begin correcting this “injustice” after Baghdad's fall, he said.

Some of the border adjustments Peters predicted to take place in the Middle East were as follows: Iraq would be divided into three smaller states as Sunni Iraq, an Arab-Shia State and Kurdistan. Jordan would retain its current territory, with some southward expansion at Saudi Arabia’s expense.

Saudi Arabia's coastal oil fields would be given to the Shia state to be established with the dissolution of Iraq and the southeastern quadrant would go to Yemen. Iran would lose a great deal of territory to Unified Azerbaijan, Free Kurdistan, the Arab Shia State and Free Baluchistan, but would gain the provinces around Herat in today's Afghanistan.

Following these changes, Iran would become an ethnic Persian state again. Kuwait would remain within its current borders, as would Oman.

In the article, it is also stated Mecca and Medina could be ruled by a sort of Muslim super-Vatican administration.



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