Voting started today in an independence referendum organised by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, despite regional and international fears that it would stoke instability and violence across the Middle East.
Polling stations opened their doors at 8am (0500 GMT) and should close at 6pm. The final results should be announced within 72 hours.
The vote, expected to deliver a comfortable "yes" for independence, is not binding and is meant to give Massoud Barzani's KRG a mandate to negotiate secession of the oil producing region with Baghdad and the neighbouring states.
"We have been waiting 100 years for this day," said Rizgar, standing in a queue of men waiting to cast a ballot in a school in Erbil, the KRG capital.
"We want to have a state, with God's help. Today is a celebration for all Kurds. God willing, we will say yes, yes to dear Kurdistan."
The referendum was going ahead because their partnership with Baghdad has failed, Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani said on Sunday, shrugging off international opposition to the vote.
Iraq had become a "theocratic, sectarian state" and not the democratic one that was supposed to be built after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein
In response, the Iraqi government asked the autonomous Kurdish region to hand over control of its international border posts, its international airports and called on foreign countries to stop importing Kurdish crude oil.
It asked "the neighbouring countries and the countries of the world to deal exclusively with the federal government of Iraq in regards to entry posts and oil," according to a statement from Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's office.
The United States and other Western powers have urged Kurdish authorities in the oil producing region to cancel the vote, arguing that it distracts from the fight against Islamic State.
Turkey and Iran have also kept up the pressure to stop the vote, with presidents Tayyip Erdogan and Hassan Rouhani speaking by phone and expressing concern that it will "bring chaos in the region", according to Erdogan's office.
Barzani, at a news conference at his headquarters near Erbil, dismissed the worries of Iraq's neighbours, committing to respect laws on international boundaries and not seek to redraw the region's borders.
"We will never go back to the failed partnership" with Baghdad, he said, adding Iraq had become a "theocratic, sectarian state" and not the democratic one that was supposed to be built after the 2003 overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Barzani said Iraq's Kurds would seek talks with the Shi'ite-led central government to implement the expected "yes" outcome, even if they take two years or more, to settle land and oil sharing disputes ahead of independence.
Abadi's government in Iraq regards the referendum as anti-constitutional and in a televised address on Sunday he said it "could lead to ethnic divisions, exposing (the Iraqis) to disastrous dangers that only God knows."
Earlier, Iranian authorities stopped air traffic to Iraqi Kurdistan's international airports at Erbil and Sulaimaniya in response to a request from Baghdad, Fars News Agency said. Iran also started war games at the Kurdish border.
On Saturday, Turkey's parliament voted to extend by a year a mandate authorising the deployment of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria.
Turkey has also vowed political, economic and security steps without specifying what they are, but Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim reinforced the message on Sunday.
Turkey is the transit route of all crude exported by the landlocked Kurdistan region of Iraq.
"Turkey will never ever tolerate any status change or any new formations on its southern borders," he said in a speech in the capital Ankara. "The KRG will be primarily responsible for the probable developments after this referendum."