At the end of the American intervention of 2003, the Kurds in Northern Iraq had managed to create a regional government: Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) comprising the provinces Dohuk, Erbil and Suleymaniye with Erbil as its capital. This entity had been federated to the new Federal Iraqi state, established by the constitution of 2005. After almost a century of struggling, the Kurds had finally succeeded to have an autonomous status. But one dispute between Baghdad and Erbil remained, the territorial lines and the oil. The constitution stated that 'oil and gas are owned by all the people of Iraq and the federal government shall undertake the management of oil and gas extracted from present fields, provided that it distributed its revenues in proportion to the population.' (extract of Article 111 and 112). Based on the population living in the autonomous Kurdistan Region, the KRG would receive 17% of Iraq's total oil revenue. This is about the facts. The KRG will continuously challenge the federal government in Baghdad. As an example, in 2014 the KRG finalised a strategic energy agreement with Turkey and started to export its own oil and gas through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline which was not only against the constitutions regulations. Only in March 2023 a Paris arbitration court ruled in favour of Baghdad against Ankara, saying the latter had breached a 1973 pipeline agreement.

The secure situation in the autonomous Kurdistan region attracted many Iraqi to move to Kurdistan as well as the region became a sanctuary for internally displaced people and vulnerable minorities from other parts of the country, especially during the sectarian conflict (2007-2008) and later during the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) occupation of the Mosul province. The Peshmerga forces are the KRG's legitimate security force. They played a significant role in the co-called battle of Mosul (2016-2017) to retake the city of Mosul from ISIL.

Back in 2014, when ISIL took control of most of Mosul province, including Kirkuk and its oil fields, the Peshmerga took control of the city of Kirkuk and other northern areas. These from ISIL retaken areas were part of the disputed areas which are not recognized by the Iraqi government as part of the autonomous Kurdistan Region. According a report by Amnesty International published in January 2016 Peshmerga forces and Kurdish militias conducted a campaign to forcibly displaced Arab communities in areas they had recaptured from IS. The report reveals evidence of forced displacement and large-scale destruction of homes in villages and towns in Nineveh, Kirkuk and Diyala governorates. Apart from the fact that the KRG had long claimed these areas as rightfully theirs, these areas were affected by the Baath Party's Arabization campaign (1970s-1990s) which forcibly displaced Kurds and other minorities and settled Arabs in these regions. In 2017, the Iraqi Security Forces retook 20% of the 'disputed' areas.

This battle around the disputed areas followed the 2017 Iraqi Kurdistan independence referendum. Contrary to the declaration of the federal government of Iraq, the independence referendum was held on 25 September 2017. The results showed that around 93% of the population in the autonomous Kurdistan Region favoured independence. Even though the KRG declared the referendum as binding, the referendum's legality was rejected by the federal government of Iraq. Following the failure of the referendum, Masoud Barzani resigned as president. 

Apart from the difficult relations between Baghdad and Erbil, the relative security and stability of the autonomous Kurdistan region has allowed it to achieve a higher level of development than in other provinces of Iraq. This included social, cultural, educational and economic growth and it made it more attractive to foreign investment. The region is also attractive for tourism from historical sites such as the Citadel in Erbil to scenic mountainous regions like Amadiya. There are different dialects of Kurdish. The KRG recognized both Kurmanji (in Iraq it is known as Bahdini), which is the dialect of the North and Sorani which is spoken in Erbil and Sulaimaniya. Both dialects, as well as Arabic, are taught in school. Sorani is the dialect with the most developed literary tradition.

This article was written by Hella Mewis and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.