It has been over two years since the Baghdad-based Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) placed an embargo on independent oil exports from the Erbil-based Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). The legal basis for the halting of these essential flows to the finances of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan was the International Chamber of Commerce’s (ICC) order that they would not be resumed until Turkey paid the FGI the US$1.5 billion in damages for these allegedly unauthorised oil exports over many previous years. That said, the real reason why the…