The Kirkuk issue after the invasion of Iraq

During the establishment period of Republic of Turkey, the border of Turkey-Iraq became a serious subject matter. The problem, which could not be solved at Treaty of Lausanne, was not resulted against Turkey by League of Nations to step in, therefore Mosul and Kirkuk was included to the lands of Iraq. During and after the impacts coming successively in Iraq, belonging of Kirkuk became one of the most important problems between Bagdad and Kurd groups. However, generosity of the government to use force provided the problem to be always solved in favor of Baghdad. Kurd groups in the chaotic atmosphere, which formed by the occupation of the US that ended Baathist regime in 2003, provided a new process to start by means of capturing the control in Kirkuk and changing the demographic composition. In this process, the future of Kirkuk rose to the first row among the internal matters of Iraq. Arabs and Turkmens went against joining of the city to Kurdish region. On the other hand, the assumption that regional and international balances would change in case of Kurds got the oil richness of the city, made Iran, which tried to be intervener to Iraq and Turkey, which had concerns for the future of Turkmens in the city while it was struggling with PKK and the US, which occupied the country, as the parties of the problem.The thesis is to present clues about if Turkish Foreign Policy, which acts with the code of law called ?zero problem with the neighbors?, sees Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) as a ?neighbor? or not in the recent years and how much concessions will it make from the code of law called ?zero problem with the neighbors?. After the struggles that the Kurds carried on to Baghdad for long years, it tried to provide predictions related if it can risk the gains that it got as a result of the US operation and if it can also risk Kirkuk to include it in the borders of KRG. It searches for answers if the Kurds can take the risk to be announced as ?unwanted? by all regional factors for the sake of Kirkuk and if it will legalize its existence by forming good relationship with the environment or if they will prefer to be seen as the ?Trojan Horse? of the US in the region by sustaining its relationship with the US. In conclusion the thesis tries to present in what direction will Kirkuk?s future status in Iraq?s federal structure change the inland balances and what can be the regions reflections of this.Key Words1. Kirkuk2. Iraq3. Kurds4. Turkmens5. Arabs