![Members of the Kurdish security forces take part in an intensive security deployment on the outskirts of Kirkuk June 12, 2014. Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shi'ite-led government. The Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north, have taken advantage of the chaos to expand their territory, taking control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3TK82.jpg/RTR3TK82.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=VQiIquU7)
Denise Natali is a former columnist for Al-Monitor. She is a distinguished research fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS), National Defense University where she specializes on regional energy politics, Middle East politics and the Kurdish issue. The views expressed are her own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the National Defense University, the Department of Defense or the US government. On Twitter: @dnataliDC
![Members of the Kurdish security forces take part in an intensive security deployment on the outskirts of Kirkuk June 12, 2014. Militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) overran the northern city of Mosul earlier this week and have since pressed south towards Baghdad in an onslaught against the Shi'ite-led government. The Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north, have taken advantage of the chaos to expand their territory, taking control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/06/RTR3TK82.jpg/RTR3TK82.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=VQiIquU7)
![A worker adjusts the valve of an oil pipe at Khurmala oilfield on the outskirts of the city of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region December 4, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTX163IS](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/05/RTX163IS.jpg/RTX163IS.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=Cwnosi27)
Denise Natali
![A woman hails a taxi while standing under Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) logos before Iraq's parliamentary elections in Sulaimaniya April 28, 2014. Picture taken April 28, 2014. To match IRAQ-ELECTION/KURDS REUTERS/Jacob Russell (IRAQ - Tags: ELECTIONS POLITICS) - RTR3N0GY](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/05/RTR3N0GY.jpg/RTR3N0GY.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=ezt_ihfx)
Denise Natali
![Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki (R) speaks next to his Iraqi Kurdish counterpart Nechirvan Barzani during a meeting of the Council of Ministers in Arbil, about 350 km (220 miles) north of Baghdad June 9, 2013. Maliki visited the Kurdistan region on Sunday for the first time in more than two years, in an attempt to resolve a long-running dispute over oil and land that has strained Iraq's unity to the limit. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX10H5T](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/02/RTX10H5T.jpg/RTX10H5T.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=7OC91u_l)
Denise Natali
![A worker walks on an oil pipeline at Khurmala oilfield on the outskirts of the city of Arbil, in Iraq's Kurdistan region December 4, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: POLITICS ENERGY) - RTX163IY](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX163IY.jpg/RTX163IY.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=SmaSQI1c)
Denise Natali
![Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President of Iraqi Kurdistan Masoud Barzani (R) attend a ceremony with Erdogan's wife Emine Erdogan in Diyarbakir November 16, 2013. The president of Iraqi Kurdistan called on Turkey's Kurds to back a flagging peace process with Ankara on Saturday, making his first visit to southeastern Turkey in two decades in a show of support for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Barzani's trip to Diyarbakir, the main city in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast, comes as Ankara fi](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2014/01/RTX15G48.jpg/RTX15G48.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=pcZFuKJQ)
Denise Natali
![A flame rises from a pipeline at Tawke oil field near Dahuk, 400 km (245 miles) north of Baghdad May 9, 2009. Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish region said on Friday it would start exporting oil next month, but the Oil Ministry in Baghdad cast doubt on the plan, denying it had given them permission to use national pipelines. Picture taken May 9, 2009. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ ENERGY POLITICS) - RTXFDTF](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTXFDTF.jpg/RTXFDTF.jpg?h=6c6b25af&itok=I0lwl0ru)
Denise Natali
![Kurdish security forces inspect the site of a bomb attack in the city of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad, September 29, 2013. Six people were killed on Sunday in a series of explosions outside a security directorate in the capital of Iraq's usually peaceful autonomous Kurdistan region, security and medical sources said. Gunfire could be heard after the blasts in Arbil that wounded a further 36 people, according to the city's health directorate](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/Bombkurd.jpg/Bombkurd.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=p189CSIO)
Denise Natali
![An aerial view of the city of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdistan region, about 350 km (217 miles) north of Baghdad, March 19, 2013. Picture taken March 19, 2013. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari (IRAQ - Tags: CITYSCAPE) - RTR3F8BQ](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/08/RTR3F8BQ.jpg/RTR3F8BQ.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=VFO8Ha8V)
Denise Natali
![Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of parliament from his ruling AK Party (AKP) during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara June 25, 2013. Turkish anti-terrorism police detained 20 people in raids in the capital Ankara on Tuesday in connection with weeks of anti-government protests across the country, media reports said. The unrest began at the end of May when police used force against campaigners opposed to plans to redevelop a central Istanbul park. The protest spiralled int](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/07/1-RTX1102J.jpg/1-RTX1102J.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=-p3s7WsL)
Denise Natali
![Turkish President Abdullah Gul (L) and Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani shake hands before their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Ankara April 20, 2012. REUTERS/Presidential Palace/Murat Cetinmuhurdar/Handout (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS - RTR30ZAR](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/06/RTR30ZAR.jpg/RTR30ZAR.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=k_3AvZR5)
Denise Natali
![Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters talk to each other as they stand guard at the Qandil mountains near the Iraq-Turkish border in Sulaimaniya, 330 km (205 miles) northeast of Baghdad March 24, 2013. Shattered stone houses recall Turkish air strikes on Kurdish rebels holed up in the Qandil mountains of northern Iraq. Life is harsh amid the snowcapped peaks, supplies are sparse and armed forays across into Turkey perilous in the extreme. Yet rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan, who declared a ceasefire from his T](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/05/RTXXZNP.jpg/RTXXZNP.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=3-PdXgls)
Denise Natali