Catalonia wants out; Spain says no

An Iraqi federal court has ordered the arrest of Kurdistan officials involved in overseeing a referendum last month on the region's independence.
The arrest warrants, issued by Baghdad's Rusafa investigation court, apply to members of the Kurdistan Region's electoral commission.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi last month demanded the suspension of the controversial vote.
Kurdish leaders later insisted the referendum was legitimate.
On Wednesday, the Rusafa court said "legal measures" would be taken through the office of the public prosecutor against those Kurdistan officials it said were involved in supervising the vote.
A spokesman for the court, Abdulstar Bayraqdar, said the warrants followed a lawsuit filed by the country's National Security Council which argued that the referendum was "contrary to the decision of the high federal court".
Following the vote on 25 September, Kurdish officials said 2.8 million people living in the three provinces that form the Kurdistan Region, as well as "areas of Kurdistan outside the region's administration", had voted in favour of independence.
Kurdish leaders said the "Yes" result provided them with a mandate to start negotiations on secession with the central government in Baghdad and neighbouring countries.
However Mr Abadi has called for the referendum, in which 92% of voters backed secession, to be annulled.
Kurds are the fourth-largest ethnic group in the Middle East but they have never obtained a permanent nation state.
In Iraq, where they make up an estimated 15-20% of the population of 37 million, Kurds faced decades of repression before they acquired autonomy in 1991.

[...]
The police may well have had the law on their side to enforce a court order but it didn’t give them the right to use violence against peaceful protesters.
[...]
As of October 8, 23 different courts in Catalonia were examining allegations of police misconduct, with one investigating complaints made by 36 individuals relating to 17 sites in Barcelona.
[...]

Walter Hinteler wrote:

Quote:

Isaiah Berlin once wrote that nationalism feeds on a sense of wounded pride and humiliation. As Europe tries to sort itself out and prepare for the future – including through grassroots “democratic conventions” due next year across the continent – it would do well to pay closer attention to those wounds left by history. We thought that they had healed – but they really haven’t.

There was always nationalism in the U.S. It was seen in the Manifest Destiny that promulgated the belief that the U.S. should extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. What "wounded pride and humiliation" caused this?

The only possible "wounded pride and humiliation" was being the losers in the European class system (i.e., owned no land)? Does that count?

She realizes she enjoys analysts of current events, and has an open mind.

She has also mentioned similarities and differences between Catalonia and secession of an American state very briefly elsewhere.

But apart from holding an ‘illegal’ referendum like Slovenia, the two cases have more differences than similarities.

Participation in the referendum
The Slovenian independence referendum had a turnout of 93.2 percent and 95 percent of the electorate voted for independence. In Catalonia’s case, turnout for the referendum was 42.3 percent .

European Union membership
Unlike Catalonia, Slovenia was not a member of the European Union or NATO when it declared independence.

United vs divided society
In Slovenia, there is no evidence that the race to independence divided society, whereas Catalonia’s plight for independence has divided the region’s population. Separatists and unionists rallies have been taking place in Barcelona since the referendum was announced.

express.co.uk

When I've been in England for the first time, in 1963, my guest-parents (very conservative) and the lodger (strong Labour supporter [he introduced me to Labour Social Club] strongly advised me, not to read this tabloid.

It was a broadsheet until 1977, believe it or not!