Politics of Iraq

Flights from Turkey to northern Iraq will be suspended as of Sept. 29, the Turkish Consulate in Arbil stated on Sept. 27, as Ankara continues to object to the recent independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (KRG).
 

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım spoke on the phone with his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi to discuss the Sept. 25 independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), a Prime Ministry source said on Sept. 27.  

Turkey told Iraq it would deal only with the Iraqi government on crude oil exports, the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Sept. 28.

Tough and complex situations should be analyzed through the lens of experience and common sense. The recent article "The path that Turkey should take as the Kurdistan referendum takes place," written by retired ambassadors Osman Korutürk and Selim Karaosmanoğlu for the OdaTV website, is a piece that we should all read carefully nowadays.

Many in the Turkish media are happy to slam Israel and the U.S. over support for the Kurdish independence referendum, which would divide Iraq and have the potential to do the same to Turkey, but very little is said on Russia's stance.

Tough and complex situations should be analyzed through the lens of experience and common sense. The recent article "The path that Turkey should take as the Kurdistan referendum takes place," written by retired ambassadors Osman Korutürk and Selim Karaosmanoğlu for the OdaTV website, is a piece that we should all read carefully nowadays.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi is demanding that this week's referendum on independence for the autonomous Kurdish region be annulled.

"The referendum must be annulled and dialogue initiated in the framework of the constitution. We will never hold talks on the results of the referendum," Abadi told Iraqi lawmakers on September 27.

The Iraqi parliament on Sept. 27 asked Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to send troops to the Kurdish-held region of Kirkuk and take control of its oilfields, as the prime minister demanded that Kurdish administration "cancel" the outcome of the independence referendum.

People living in northern Iraq voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence for the Kurdistan Region in Monday’s controversial referendum.
The electoral commission said 92% of the 3.3 million Kurds and non-Kurds who cast their ballots supported secession.
The announcement came despite a last-minute appeal for the result to be “cancelled” from Iraq’s prime minister.

At least 5,000 ultra-nationalist volunteers are ready to join Turkmen groups' struggle to defend Kirkuk and other cities with Turkmen populations in Iraq, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli said on Sept. 27.