These will be difficult issues, and if it appears that the Kurds will finally break away from Iraq, the international community must ensure that unresolved issues such as the Kirkuk cluster oilfields, which were seized by the peshmerga in 2014, are resolved peacefully.

Other problems, such as the ongoing violence between Erdoğan’s government and U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds (as well as Turkish Kurds and the Iraqi PKK) pose serious questions over whether an independent Kurdish region would lead to the peace the Kurds have long sought. At the same time, Baghdad should give serious consideration as to how the Kurds might find remaining within Iraq an attractive prospect. Letting go of Kurdistan could be best for both, but initiating an independent Kurdistan will be a delicate process.

To that end, misinformation campaigns in leading newspapers are probably not a good starting point.

Luay al-Khatteeb is a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy of Columbia University (SIPA). Follow him on Twitter: @Al_Khatteeb.

Image: Flickr/@Kurdishstruggle