Baghdad-Erbil Deal Silent on KRG's Surplus Oil

That lack of trust pushed the KRG over the past couple of years to seek closer relations with its northern neighbor, Turkey, to secure an alternative route to export its oil to global markets.

When the IS captured large swaths of territory in western and central Iraq in June, Kurds thought they had the best opportunity in their contemporary history for independence from Baghdad and counted on Ankara for support given “strategic” long-term energy deals they had recently signed with Turkey.

But Ankara’s failure to assist the Kurds in substantive ways in the face of an all-out invasion in August by the IS on Kurdish territory seems to have prompted Kurdish leaders to reconsider their relations with Ankara to some extent.

Many see Erbil’s willingness to sign a deal with Baghdad as a manifestation of the realization that they cannot be too trusting toward Ankara either.

“It is possible that disappointment with Turkey might have had some impact in changing the direction [of KRG from Ankara] toward Baghdad,” Adnan Osman, a former Kurdish MP, and current political commentator. “The Kurdistan Region is part of Iraq and the KRG has to work with Baghdad.”

(Oil image via Shutterstock)