SULAIMANIYAH, Iraqi Kurdistan Region — Relations between Turkey and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) went frosty when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened the Erbil administration with stopping oil flows and closing the border crossings in the aftermath of the highly controversial Kurdish independence referendum.

“Where will the KRG sell or send its oil from now on? The valve is in our hands. The minute we turn it off, there is nothing else to do,” Erdogan said in September 2017.

Ankara did briefly stop the oil flow from Iraqi Kurdistan to Turkey, but the border crossings have never been closed. Still, the mood between the two sides is still frosty. Turkey’s trade with the regions, and consequently the whole of Iraq in general, rapidly fell. Kurds began accusing Turkey of “punishing them with hunger.”

According to Turkey’s official figures, the volume of trade between the two countries has regressed to $9 billion from $12 billion over the past five years. According to figures from the Ministry of Trade, exports between January-October 2017 stood at $7.6 billion but fell to $6.7 billion in the same period of 2018.