|
ANKARA, Sept. 17-- Turkey has brought forward two critical meetings ahead of the controversial independence referendum in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, following renewed calls on the Kurdish leadership to postpone the vote. "We will announce our plan regarding the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) referendum after the National Security Council (MGK) meeting on Sept. 22," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced late Friday, adding that another cabinet meeting would be held before the MGK meeting. Erdogan stressed that Turkey who shares a long border with northern Iraq would not allow steps which will threaten Iraq's territorial integrity. A few hours before his televised speech, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim implied that Turkey would impose sanctions on the KRG if it proceeded with the independence referendum. "We do not want to impose sanctions. But if we arrive at that point, there are steps that have already been planned that Turkey can take," he told reporters in Ankara, adding that he was making a "friendly appeal" to the KRG leader Massoud Barzani to cancel the planned vote. Yildirim and his Iraqi counterpart Haider al-Abadi talked over the phone on Friday, in which the two agreed to work together to stop the referendum. Yildirim also made it clear during the weekend that the vote was a matter of national security and Turkey would take any necessary steps to prevent it. The Iraqi leader said on Saturday that he was prepared to intervene militarily if the referendum resulted in violence between different ethnic groups of the region, describing the vote as "illegal." | 
