>>2060774In Iraq, the Kurds have governed themselves since 1991, when a U.S.-led no-fly zone was established in the country’s north to protect the Kurds from Saddam Hussein’s forces. The Kurds set up the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), their own parliament, used a different version of the Iraqi dinar than the rest of the country, and even issued their own postal stamps. Iraqi Kurdistan managed to survive isolation, international boycotts, and a civil war that divided the area between the two main Kurdish parties. After the U.S. and its allies toppled Saddam’s regime in 2003, Iraqi Kurdistan’s status as a federal region was formalized by the Iraqi state.
Since then, the Iraqi Kurds have run their own affairs with little regard to Baghdad and little concern about not being an independent state. Massoud Barzani, the president of Kurdistan (his term officially ended in August but he hasn’t stepped down), did announce in the summer of 2014 that he planned a referendum on independence when it looked like the Iraqi state was going to collapse. He postponed the vote indefinitely a few months later when it became clear that defending Kurdistan against ISIS was the priority.
