The year 2017 has gone into history for being an interesting year when it comes to regional struggles for independence. That is because in that year two referendums were proposed. One by the Catalans in Spain and the other by the Kurds in Iraq. Both referendum proposals were unsuccessful. However, the struggle for autonomy and self-determination in an already sovereign state, is still an interesting area to study. Especially in the case of the Kurds, which are divided amongst four states in the middle east. The reasons behind that struggle and what they can tell about the independence claim as a whole, is something relevant to study in the area of political science. The objective of this study is to apply both classic and modern theories of secession on the Kurdish struggle for independence in the states of Iraq and Iran, to see if there is a covariance in the studied variables. The methodology of the study is a comparative analysis of the Most Similar Systems Design method, whereas the theory of the analysed objective is the theory of secession which has been created with the basis of Wood five criterions of secession. In addition to this analytical framework other theoretic aspects such as regional stability, the international community and economic factors have been added to support the secession theories and thereby creating a better degree of explanation. The analysis concluded that there could be seen a covariance of the secession theory and the regional self-determination and it concluded that Wood’s first criteria, the preconditions of secession, is the most important variable to study. The study couldn’t conclude which one of Wood´s preconditions that seemed to be the most important.