ERBIL, Iraq — The salary crisis in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq has led to further economic, political and social interdependence with Baghdad, which began to melt the Kurdish dream of independence. The economic situation has affected even the most hard-line nationalist politicians in the Kurdistan Region. Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan, visited Baghdad on Sept. 29 as the head of a major political delegation representing most of the Kurdish forces in a bid to solve outstanding economic and political issues with the Baghdad-based Iraqi government.

Barzani said that he demanded autonomy for the Kurdistan Region and not secession from Iraq. Similarly, Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Region, said June 2 that he sees Baghdad as Iraqi Kurdistan’s strategic depth.

Such statements were inconceivable before the economic crisis and the growing popular discontent in the region; the president and prime minister of the Kurdistan Region used to seize upon every opportunity to promote the declaration of the Kurdish state.

The president’s visit to Baghdad coincided with and was preceded by a series of protests in the region. Thousands of state employees — namely teachers and university professors — took to the streets Sept. 30 to protest a cut in salaries by the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG).