The Transforming Relations of Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan (1991-2014) II.

Abstract

This article is the second part of a study dealing with the relations between the Iraqi Kurds and Turkey. The main questions are how and why the relations between Ankara and Erbil deepened after 2008. The article identifies several factors that explain the changing attitude of Turkey towards the Iraqi Kurds. On the one hand, there was a clear shift, both on theoretical and practical levels, of foreign policy-making in Turkey. As a result of these changes, hard power elements were underplayed by soft power attitudes both in the domestic and the foreign policy realms. Internal developments of Iraq (sectarianisation, the political and economic development of Iraqi Kurds, the decreasing political power of the Turkomans) also constrained Turkey to reevaluate its political attitude. Beyond working together against the PKK, there were other dimensions of cooperation between Turkey and the Kurdish Regional Government in Iraq: the fields of economy and energy policy. These new, strategic elements defined the positions of Ankara and Erbil in the regional competition for power and economic gains; however, the fateful year of 2014 challenged the positive direction of relations by posing political and economic turmoil in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region.