Madaresharghi<\/a> _ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that the referendum, slated for Sept. 25, would worsen the situation in a country \u201cthat is undergoing so many problems\u201d, news outlets reported.<\/p>\nHe told state-run TRT television: \u201cGod forbid, it could lead to civil war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkey – which has a large Kurdish population and is battling Kurdish rebels – has close ties with Iraq\u2019s autonomous region but is strongly opposed to an independent Kurdish state.<\/p>\n
Analysts have little doubt that the September 25 referendum would result in a \u2018Yes\u2019 for an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq.<\/p>\n
But the result would be non binding and leave the approximately five million Kurds of northern Iraq some way away from actual independence.<\/p>\n
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in June strongly criticized the referendum plan, calling it \u201can error\u201d and \u201ca threat\u201d to Iraq\u2019s territorial integrity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fundamental reason for our opposition to this referendum is the importance of preserving Iraq\u2019s territorial and political integrity,\u201d Erdogan\u2019s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a radio interview Wednesday, denying any ill will towards the Kurds.<\/p>\n
Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak also had said the referendum would harm energy cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan Region, which pumps hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil a day to Turkey\u2019s Ceyhan export terminal.<\/p>\n
Iraqi Kurdistan is a landlocked region that depends heavily on its neighbors.<\/p>\n
The Kurdistan Region\u2019s political parties, not including Gorran Movement and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), came to an agreement on June 7 to hold a referendum on the region\u2019s independence on September 25. The decision was slammed by Iraq, US, UK, EU, Russia, Germany, Turkey and Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Turkey says Iraq\u2019s semi-autonomous Kurdish region should reverse its decision to hold a referendum on independence, warning that the vote could lead to a civil war. Madaresharghi _ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that the referendum, slated for Sept. 25, would worsen the situation in a country \u201cthat is undergoing so many problems\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[616,269,31,615,197,82,23,27],"yoast_head":"\n
Turkey Says Iraq Kurdish Referendum Can Lead to Civil War - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/turkey-says-iraq-kurdish-referendum-can-lead-to-civil-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Turkey Says Iraq Kurdish Referendum Can Lead to Civil War - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Turkey says Iraq\u2019s semi-autonomous Kurdish region should reverse its decision to hold a referendum on independence, warning that the vote could lead to a civil war. Madaresharghi _ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday that the referendum, slated for Sept. 25, would worsen the situation in a country \u201cthat is undergoing so many problems\u201d, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/turkey-says-iraq-kurdish-referendum-can-lead-to-civil-war\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-08-16T23:52:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-08-17T21:27:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\">\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\">\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/\",\"name\":\"madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\",\"description\":\"madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\",\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/turkey-says-iraq-kurdish-referendum-can-lead-to-civil-war\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/turkey-says-iraq-kurdish-referendum-can-lead-to-civil-war\/\",\"name\":\"Turkey Says Iraq Kurdish Referendum Can Lead to Civil War - madaresharghi | An Analytical Look at Middle Eastern Developments\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-08-16T23:52:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-08-17T21:27:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2af2959b42ca6c13e9db095c63e251ba\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/turkey-says-iraq-kurdish-referendum-can-lead-to-civil-war\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/2af2959b42ca6c13e9db095c63e251ba\",\"name\":\"\\u0627\\u0639\\u0638\\u0645 \\u0645\\u062d\\u0628\\u06cc\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/bd691f2af3ef79e0a585691926e43b64?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"\\u0627\\u0639\\u0638\\u0645 \\u0645\\u062d\\u0628\\u06cc\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/madaresharghi.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":506,"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499\/revisions\/506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madaresharghi.ir\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}