Turkey says Kurdish vote caused ‘devastation’

BAGHDAD: Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the semiautonomous Iraqi Kurdish region’s offer to freeze the results of the referendum on independence will not redress the “devastation” the vote has caused in Iraq.

Yildirim spoke on Thursday, a day after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi visited Turkey to discuss possible steps against the Iraqi Kurdish leaders.

Yildirim said the two sides discussed the possible opening of a border gate between Iraq and Turkey that would bypass the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Yildirim’s remarks came as Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the Iraqi Kurdish offer for last month’s referendum on independence to be frozen is “not enough,” instead urging the Irbil government to cancel the vote.

“It is an important move that the northern Iraqi administration takes a step back but it is not enough. This referendum should be cancelled,” Cavusoglu told a press conference in Ankara.

Turkey, along with Baghdad and other neighboring countries, strongly opposed the Iraqi Kurds’ non-binding vote on independence.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, led by Masoud Barzani, said on Wednesday it would propose to the federal government “the freezing of the results of the referendum... and the start of an open dialogue” on the basis of the constitution.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi said Baghdad would only accept the annulment of the referendum.

The Kurdish offer came after Iraq seized large areas of territory that Kurdish forces had captured over the years beyond the borders of the autonomous region.

Yildirim appeared to dismiss the impact of the offer.

“The northern Iraq administration can take whatever decision it wants from now on, it is obvious the decisions will not produce a result that would compensate for the damage,” he said at a press conference in Ankara with Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.