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Turkey opposes Iraqi Kurdish bid for independence referendum

Xinhua, March 31, 2017 Adjust font size:

Turkey disapproved the referendum bid for independence of Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), Turkish presidential spokesman said on Friday.

It would be "a wrong step," said the spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, at a press conference in the presidential complex in Ankara.

Iraq is passing through a fragile period and there are several security risks at the highest levels, said Kalin as quoted by private broadcaster NTV.

Kalin noted that Turkey had discussed the issue with the KRG leadership on several occasions in the past and delivered its message that disrupting Iraq's territorial integrity on ethnic and sectarian lines would not be right.

KRG President Massoud Barzani said on Thursday at a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that an independence referendum will be carried out in the "near future."

According to local daily Hurriyet, Safeen Dizayee, a spokesperson for the KRG government confirmed the plans for independence vote. "We should enter a serious dialogue with Baghdad to reach an amicable solution, an amicable solution for divorce," he said. Endit