When in 2003 the AKP-dominated Turkish parliament prohibited US forces from invading Iraq through Kurdistan, the US blamed itself.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: How Turkey was lost

For starters, Northern Iraq or the Kurdistan region, is the only part of Iraq that's really stable.

NPR: McCain, Obama Tussle over Iraq

At the eight or nine security checkpoints through which you pass on the road from Erbil to Sulaymaniyah, the two main cities of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, as international documents officially call it, you never spot the name of Iraq on a military or police badge.

ECONOMIST: Iraqi Kurdistan