Iraq/Kurdistan: What's Next for Kurds? Iraq Refuses Referendum Vote, Wants Its Oil and Airports Back

Sep 27, 2017 | Tom O'Connor, Newsweek
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Iraqi Kurds have voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from the country's central government in Baghdad, but the historic referendum has been widely opposed in the region and threatens instability in a country already at war for 14 years. Some 92.73 percent of those living under Iraq's northern autonomous Kurdish Regional Government voted in favor of statehood. The referendum, called earlier this year by the Iraqi Kurdish president, Masoud Barzani, promised to grant Kurds self-governance in the Iraqi portion of their ancestral homeland, which also spans parts of Iran, Syria and Turkey, but all three countries and Baghdad have deeply opposed Barzani's initiative and have already begun to take actions against it.