Mustafa Barzani

Prime Minister of Iraq's Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) Nechirvan Barzani on June 26 congratulated Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on his election win, expressing the desire to improve ties.

"We congratulate you, your party...," Barzani said, in a message he sent to Erdoğan, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

The president of Iraq’s Kurdish region warned on Friday that the Kurds might be forced to retaliate if the central government persists with what his spokesman called a “very aggressive” stance toward the pro-independence referendum.

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani went ahead with the independence referendum despite all the oppositions. 

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım explained how a complicated and tensed period was waiting for Turkey.
He also emphasized a couple of times that they would have "closer dialogue with Baghdad." 

Arbil has never been a threat to Ankara, and will remain to not be so, according to Nechirvan Barzani, prime mnister of the Kurdistan Regional Gvoernment (KRG) in northern Iraq.

People in Iraq’s autonomous region of Kurdistan are voting in an independence referendum, amid rising tensions and international opposition.

Polls opened at 05:00 GMT with balloting also taking place in the disputed areas between the northern city of Erbil and the capital Baghdad, as well as the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, which is ethnically mixed.

Thanks to Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani's move to hold a referendum on carving out an independent Kurdistan, the Middle East is once again a high-risk spot, competing with the ongoing crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

"Ever since Lausanne, we have dreamed of establishing a state," Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leader Massoud Barzani said in 2016 during a visit to the U.S.

When you look at the borders in the Middle East, Barzani said in March 2016, they only apply on paper. "The region's realities are mapping something new," the Kurdish leader said.

Turkey's president and Iraq's prime minister late on Sept. 18 discussed the planned referendum in the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) slated for Sept. 25, according to Turkish presidential sources.      
The sources said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Haidar al-Abadi spoke on the phone just a week before the independence referendum. 

Israeli flags have recently been waved during independence rallies in the cities of northern Iraq's Kurdistan region. 

Turkey and the United States have once again called on Masoud Barzani, leader of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, to cancel a planned independence referendum scheduled to be held on Sept. 25.