Iraqi Kurds’ vote

of their international airports.

Kurdish Rudaw TV reported that the Kurdistan Regional Government had offered to hold talks with Baghdad about hosting Iraqi observers at Erbil and Sulaimaniya airports to help defuse the crisis.

Turkey, which has threatened to impose sanctions on the Kurds, said its border with northern Iraq remained open, although it may not remain so.

Home to the region’s largest Kurdish population, Turkey has been battling a three-decade insurgency in its largely Kurdish southeast and fears the referendum will inflame separatist tension at home.

For their part, Kurdish leaders in neighbouring Syria said the KRG referendum could bolster their cause for autonomy in negotiations with the Damascus Government. Two meetings so far on the matter had gone nowhere, they told Reuters.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who have stressed the need for Iraq’s borders to remain unchanged, were to meet in Ankara today.

Russia’s interest in the region is growing. Oil major Rosneft is increasing investment in Kurdistan and the Kurds have been developing strong ties with Moscow. The Russian Foreign Ministry warned Iraq and the Kurds against taking any steps that might destabilise the Middle East after the referendum.

The Kurds consider the vote to be a historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.

Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional, especially as it was held not only within official KRG territory itself but also on disputed territory held by Kurds elsewhere in northern Iraq.

The United States, major European countries, Turkey and Iran strongly opposed the referendum, which they described as destabilising at a time when all sides are still fighting Isis (Islamic State) militants.