Ankara Pushes Back on Iraqi Kurd Independence Bid
A bid by Iraqi Kurds to achieve independence could threaten a partnership with neighboring Turkey. "The [referendum] decision by the northern Iraqi authority deeply saddened us," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his ruling AKP lawmakers this past Tuesday. "A step toward the independence of northern Iraq is a threat to the territorial integrity of […]Dorian Jones writes for Voice of America:
A bid by Iraqi Kurds to achieve independence could threaten a partnership with neighboring Turkey.
"The [referendum] decision by the northern Iraqi authority deeply saddened us," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told his ruling AKP lawmakers this past Tuesday. "A step toward the independence of northern Iraq is a threat to the territorial integrity of Iraq, and it is wrong," he added.
Erdogan has built a close, if not unlikely, relationship with Masoud Barzani, president of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional government, or KRG. In past years, Erdogan dismissed Barzani as nothing more than a bandit, but the two men have developed an increasingly powerful alliance based on shared economic and regional interests.
