Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Wednesday called on the semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to review a decision to hold an independence referendum on Sept. 25, warning that it could trigger a civil war in Iraq.
“Holding an independence referendum in a country that has so many problems may cause the current situation to deteriorate. God forbid, that could lead to a civil war,” said Çavuşoğlu in his statement, reminding that the KRG took the decision despite the fact that Turkey has said it is against it.
The Turkish minister also renewed his call to the KRG to step back from the referendum decision.
Recalling Turkey’s readiness to work for solutions to the problems between Arbil and Baghdad, Çavuşoğlu underlined that Turkey has no problem with Kurds.
Turkey’s National Security Council [MGK] at a meeting on July 17 stated that “the KRG’s referendum decision will not be able to be put into practice either de jure or de facto.”