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Bloomberg
The Turkish army kicked off a military drill near the border with Iraq’s Kurdish region,
underscoring Turkey’s threat to do whatever it deems
necessary against an Iraqi Kurdish independence referendum scheduled for next week.
Dozens of Turkish tanks dotted an open field just a few
kilometres from the Iraqi border on Monday, according to footage on CNN-Turk television. Erdogan, who fears a sovereign Kurdish state would encourage Turkey’s own Kurdish separatists, said that he would discuss the September 25 vote with President Trump and Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York. While Ankara and the semi-automonous Kurdistan Regional Government have strong ties based on energy links and suspicion of the central government in Baghdad, a vote for Kurdish independence in Iraq’s oil-rich north could set back Turkey’s campaign to stamp out a Kurdish insurgency it’s been battling for three decades.
The referendum is a “matter of national security for our country,†Turkey’s PM Binali Yildirim said last week.