The KRG and its ruling Barzani clan owe a large portion of its secessionist opportunity to Berlin. This had already been the case for the 2005 constitutional provisions, guaranteeing wide-ranging autonomy. During the elaboration of the constitution, in the summer of 2005, in a series of events and seminars, one of Germany‘s foreign policy front organizations, the FDP-affiliated Friedrich Naumann Foundation was able to convince influential Iraqi politicians and experts of the „functionality of federal institutions in practice.“ Even supporters of the central state – from the outset, fearful of Kurdish secession – acquiesced to granting comprehensive rights of autonomy