Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu stated on Aug. 23 in Baghdad that he will tell the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) that its planned independence referendum is wrong and Ankara expects it to cancel the vote. Hurriyet reports.
Çavuşoğlu was speaking at a joint news conference his Iraqi counterpart, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, before traveling to the KRG capital Arbil in northern Iraq to meet KRG officials later in the day.
He also urged for the resolution of problems between the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and Iraq “within Iraq’s latter’s territorial integrity.”
“We believe that all problems between Arbil and Baghdad should be resolved within the framework of Iraq’s border and territorial integrity. Of course, it is important that Arbil’s rights should be given. We have always supported the KRG against ISIL but we also mention the wrong steps taken by Arbil,” he added.
“We expect Arbil to cancel the referendum decision,” Çavuşoğlu noted.