Amicable ties with the KRG — one of the few friends Turkey has left in the region — remain important for Ankara and ensure measured Turkish responses to such moves by Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Given the antipathy Turkish nationalists have for all things Kurdish, however, the situation could spin out of control with unexpected developments on the ground, leaving Ankara with yet another hostile neighbor on its borders.

The first signs of potential crisis between Ankara and Erbil came when the Kurdish-dominated provincial council in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk decided, as part of this year's Nowruz celebrations, to raise the Kurdish flag alongside the Iraqi flag over the city's historic citadel and other official institutions.