[Pineapples]

Based on that further reading, my opinion is that although it is and has been a contested area (several maps showing Kirkuk in the Kurdish autonomous region, several not), I fully believe Iraq has a right to the land. The Kurds may have their own region where they have their own parliament and can draft their own laws and what not, but it seems that it's basically on borrowed land from Iraq. Also, given the displacement of the Kurds throughout the surrounding countries, and the overall instability of the whole area due to, well, everything.. it just isn't a wise time to be attempting something like this. They have an argument to be able to regain the territory and create their own official nation, but the tensions are too high for people to be okay with just giving away land, especially as profitable as that area may be. Also, I didn't read about Turkey's stance on the issue until I did what you said, but it makes sense considering the vast majority of Kurds they have in the southeastern part of their own country, and how they're probably worried about a secession themselves. It gives to reason that if they allow Kirkuk to go, others will follow suit, which in turn would cause a great amount of increased instability in the region where they should be coming together to fight the common enemy at hand.