The Kurds of Iraq have now grabbed the rich oilfields of Kirkuk and have strengthened their hands by securing the much-needed financial resources to sustain an independent state.However, securing the money to keep a state afloat is just one element in a complicated picture and in a region of serious turmoil may not be enough for the survival of a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani and his son-in-law Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government, have been giving out signals that the Kurds may have to declare an independent state as Iraq plunges further into chaos.As Nechirvan Barzani came to Ankara for consultations with the Erdoğan government, Masoud Barzani was visiting Kirkuk to show the flag and consolidate Kurdish hold on the region as well as declaring he would fight shoulder to shoulder with his Peshmerga forces to keep the city free of Islamic extremists of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.Ankara holds the key for an independent Iraqi Kurdish state. With Ankara allowing the Kurds to sell their oil through the Iraqi-Turkish pipeline, it has done a major favor to Barzani, and he is aware of this. Now with the Kirkuk oilfields in the hands of the Barzani administration, the Kurds have a potential of selling one million barrels a day through Turkey and thus boost their earnings.But this is only half of the picture. The oil technically still belongs to the central government in Baghdad, and it has to approve the exports. The Iraqi Kurds say they are prepared to take their own share of the oil revenues and hand back the rest to the central government for the time being. But what an independent Kurdish state would do is another matter.Turkey sees the merit of a united Iraq and is urging the Kurds not to jump the gun and push aside the temptation to declare an independent state for the time being. That is why at the end of the meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nechirvan Barzani a joint statement declared the sides believe in supporting the creation of a national unity government in Baghdad. Turkey wants to keep Iraq intact but this may now sound "mission impossible."With the deep enmity that has been created between the Arab Sunnis and Arab Shiites thanks to the mistaken policies of Nouri al Maliki the current process of Iraq falling apart seems to be irreversible. With American pressure and countries like Turkey using their good offices the sides may come to some form of arrangement, but it seems all the mechanisms are in motion for the disintegration of Iraq, and in the end the most unwanted situation may become a reality. Today, the Iraqi Sunnis have turned their attention on the Shiites, and with the help of religious extremists they are dealing heavy blows to Maliki. But tomorrow may be a different situation.Sooner or later the Sunni Arabs will remember the oil riches of Kirkuk and try to lay claim to the city as well as it oilfields. That is why Barzani is declaring he too is prepared to take to the battlefields to defend Kirkuk.Declaring an independent state in the midst of the Iraqi fire will hardly bring any comfort to the Kurds. You may have funds to sustain a state, but you will always be influenced by the turmoil in Iraq that will always have a potential of spilling into your area. If you were dealing only with the ex-Baath Sunni Arabs, you would be addressing people with some common sense. But when you are dealing with the religious fundamentalists of ISIS, you are dealing with highly unpredictable people who do not regard their Muslim counterparts as real Muslims and thus see no reason why they should not kill them. That is why Ankara is treading on thin ice as it tries to secure the release of the 49 hostages from the Turkish consulate in Mosul and its scores of truck drivers held by ISIS.However, sooner or later the Kurds may turn to Ankara and say at least they can step aside by declaring an independent state, while the rest of Iraq goes up in flames and try their best to contain the fire from affecting their region. Ankara should be prepared for that day.