Turkey and Kurds in post-US Iraq Since 2008, Turkey's relations with Iraqi Kurds have shown significant improvement, culminating in the establishment of a Turkish consulate in Arbil. This paper will analyze the various factors that contibuted to the changes in Turkey's policies toward Iraq and the Kurdish Regional Government. Based on historical event analysis, interviews with Turkish policy makers, and systematic examination of Turkish mainstream social-political discourse, the paper will discuss that four main factors were influential in these changes: developing economic relations between Turkey and Iraqi Kurds that increased the perception of positive-sum interests and created a business lobby for better relations; the regional political context including the planned US withdrawal from Iraq, Turkish-US relations and US policies toward Iran; Turkey's new and more activist foreign policy in its region targeting zero-problems with its neighbors; and the changing domestic balance of power in Turkey in favor of civilian politics and religious-conservative nationalists. The paper will argue, however, that the sustainability of improving relations continues to depend on two critical factors: peace and stability of Iraq as a state, and the resolution of Turkey's domestic Kurdish conflict, which in turn requires ideational-discursive changes that should change the perception of Kurds and the Kurdish question by the mainstream society.