Turkey warns as kurds voTe in big numbers
76% turnout in independence referendum
erbil — Kurds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict.
The vote organised by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable “yes” for independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Masoud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened a military intervention in Iraq and to cut off the pipeline that carries oil from northern Iraq to the outside world.
Speaking at a conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara, he said that Kurdish independence was unacceptable to his country and that this was a “matter of survival”.
“Our military is not at the border for nothing. We could arrive suddenly one night,” he said.
Turnout in the referendum was 76 per cent an hour before voting closed, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said.
For Iraqi Kurds, the referendum offers a historic opportunity. In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, Kurds sang and danced as they flocked to polling stations.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi ordered security services “to protect citizens being threatened and coerced” in the Kurdish region, after unconfirmed reports that Arabs in a small town in eastern Iraq were compelled to vote yes. Kurdish officials say no such coercion happened.
KThe referendum is unconstitutional. It threatens Iraq, peaceful coexistence among Iraqis and is a danger to the region.” We will take steps to safeguard the nation’s unity and protect all Iraqis Haider Al Abadi, Iraqi Prime Minister
urds voted in large numbers in an independence referendum in northern Iraq on Monday, ignoring pressure from Baghdad, threats from Turkey and Iran, and international warnings that the vote may ignite yet more regional conflict.
The vote organised by Kurdish authorities is expected to deliver a comfortable “yes” for independence, but is not binding. However, it is designed to give Massud Barzani, who heads the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a mandate to negotiate the secession of the oil-producing region.
Turnout was 76 per cent an hour before voting closed, the Kurdish Rudaw TV station said.
For Iraqi Kurds — the largest ethnic group left stateless when the Ottoman empire collapsed a century ago — the referendum offers a historic opportunity despite intense international pressure to call it off.
“We have seen worse, we have seen injustice, killings and blockades,” said Talat, waiting to vote in the regional capital of Erbil, as a group of smiling women, in colourful Kurdish dress, emerged from the school showing their fingers stained with ink, a sign that they voted.
At Sheikh Amir village, near the Peshmerga front lines west of Erbil, long lines of Kurdish fighters waited to vote outside a former school. Most emerged smiling, holding up inkmarked fingers.
In Baghdad, lawyer Adil Salman said the referendum resulted from the weakness of the Iraqi government. “The scenario we’re seeing now is of state disintegration,” he said.
The Kurds also say the vote acknowledges their contribution in confronting Daesh after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.
But with 30 million ethnic Kurds scattered over international borders across the region, Tehran and Ankara fear the spread of separatism to their own Kurdish populations.
The US State Department warned the Kurds last week that “holding the referendum in disputed areas is particularly provocative and destabilising.”
The referendum is taking place not only in the Kurdish autonomous region of Iraq, but also in areas in the north of the country where Kurdish forces have advanced against Daesh. These areas also have large non-Kurdish populations.
Iran announced a ban on direct flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop direct oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hands over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.
Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, said Iran regarded the referendum as “treason” against the Iraqi Kurds.
“Iran has blocked air traffic to this region but we are hopeful that the four neighbouring countries will block the land borders with Iraq too,” he was quoted as saying by state news agency IRNA.
Syria, embroiled in a devastating civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, rejected the referendum.
Iraqi Kurdish prime Minister Nechirvan Barxani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey and the referendum was not a threat to Ankara.
“The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders,” he told a news conference in Erbil. “If the ‘Yes’ vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully,” he said. —