Kirkuk

Iraqi Kurdish oil exports to world markets will remain halted for at least another two weeks, Turkish shipping and industry sources said Feb. 26, as security threats to the pipeline in Turkey's southeast have significantly increased.

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq exported some 600,000 barrels of oil daily on average to Turkey last month, selling a total of 18 million barrels of crude from the autonomous region and neighboring Kirkuk. 

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani has called on global leaders to acknowledge that the Sykes-Picot pact that led to the boundaries of the modern Middle East has failed, urging them to broker a new deal paving the way for a Kurdish state in an interview with the Guardian.

Kurdish forces have destroyed thousands of homes in northern Iraq in an apparent attempt to uproot Arab communities, Amnesty International said Jan. 20.

Turkey on Dec. 9 called on its citizens to leave all areas of Iraq, excluding Iraqi Kurdistan, due to increased security risks, the foreign ministry said.
 

Kurdish forces attacked the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in northern Iraq on Sept.30 in the latest of several offensives aimed at driving the militants away from the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. 

The assault began in the early morning to capture the al-Gurra heights to the west of Kirkuk in the direction of the ISIL bastion of Hawijah, Kurdish military sources said. 

Turkey has played a key role in transferring Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) oil to the international market, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Y?ld?z said on Aug. 15.

?The oil transfer couldn?t have materialized if Turkey was not involved because the central government in Baghdad did not allow it,? Y?ld?z said, speaking to visiting reporters from the Iraqi Kurdish region in Ankara.

A number of explosions have hit important energy pipelines in eastern and southeastern Turkey over the past month. Unless the required measures are taken to halt such attacks, they will have a devastating impact on Turkey?s strategic target of becoming a reliable energy corridor or energy hub in the future. 

Turkey will deploy thermal cameras and horse-back patrols to heighten security around key oil and gas pipelines as the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) increase, in a bid to safeguard energy supplies in the import-dependent country, energy officials said. 

Turkey will deploy thermal cameras and horse-back patrols to heighten security around key oil and gas pipelines as Kurdish militant attacks increase, in a bid to safeguard energy supplies in the import-dependent country, energy officials said.