Kurdish organizations have sent a request to The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in an attempt to obtain an ccTLD for the Kurdistan Region.
Every country has its own code: (.DE) for Germany, (.SE) for Sweden, (.IR) for Iran, etc. However, this code is not unique to countries, and can also be used by stateless nations, like Iraqi Kurdistan.
Other unrecognized people including the Catalans, Basques, Bretons and Székelys, have also requested a ccTLD; some have succeeded, while others are still in the process of obtaining it. While codes for sovereign countries consist of two letters, unrecognized states have three (i.e. .CAT for Catalonia).
Through these domains, unrecognized nations and ethnic groups can enhance their sense of culture and language, as well as achieving greater international recognition.
A Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) official in Turkey’s Kurdish city of Amad has asked Habar Diyarbakir website for experts to request that ICANN issue a ccTLD for Kurdistan (.KUR).
“Turkey cannot veto the code, because ICANN was established in the US and only the US government has the ability to veto it,” said the BDP official.
“There aren’t any obstacles in the way of Kurdistan getting its own national code,” said the Director of Technical Services at ICANN, Kim Davies, to Habar Diyarbakir.
Davies also pointed out that although they are not currently taking any more requests for country codes, Kurdistan is invited to apply when the application process opens again.
ICANN is a nonprofit private organization created on Sept. 18, 1998. They oversee internet-related tasks that were previously carried out directly on behalf of the US government by other organizations, including the internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which ICANN now operates. Source