The Iraqi central government has issued a statement Sunday accusing the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of having made a “declaration of war” against them, accusing them of bringing in fighters from Turkey’s PKK to the contested province of Kirkuk.
Kurdish President Massoud Barzani denied that any PKK had entered Kirkuk, saying that the only Kurdish forces there are all Peshmerga. He added that the Peshmerga forces are prepared to defend Kurdish territory from Iraqi threats.
In late September, Kurdistan held a referendum, in which over 92% of voters supported declaring independence from Iraq. Iraq’s parliament has authorized the prime minister to send troops into Kurdistan to secure control over the country.
Both Iran and Turkey are supporting Iraq, with a suggestion that they might join a war against Kurdish independence. The claims about the PKK being involved are likely designed to encourage Turkey’s involvement.
Though both the PKK and the KRG have secessionist ambitions, they have not historically gotten along very well, with the PKK tending to be on better terms with Syria’s YPG than with the Iraqi regional political factions.
The end game is near for the Kurds.
It is hard to find completely reliable data on the crude production by fields in Iraq. In the past Kirkuk yielded roughly 25% of Iraq’s daily crude production. The other 75% comes from fields in the southeast of the country.
The value of Kirkuk lies in the huge proven reserve of the field.
It is also difficult to find how much the entire nation of Iraq has spent on and invested in the Kirkuk fields plus pipelines paid with general tax funds. In that context when the Kurds simply take those fields without compensation it is a theft.
It is also unclear to me whether the Kurds control or can easily get to the pipeline from the East Baghdad field to Turkey.