Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening a military intervention in Iraq in response to the Iraqi Kurdish region’s referendum on independence from Baghdad.
Erdogan, speaking at a conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara as Iraqi Kurds voted in their region on Monday, said that Kurdish independence was unacceptable to his country and that this was a “matter of survival.”
He pointed to Turkish military exercises currently taking place on Turkey’s border with the Iraqi Kurdish region.
Erdogan said: “Our military is not (at the border) for nothing.” He also added: “We could arrive suddenly one night.”
In this photo taken Saturday, Sept. 23, 2017, Turkish army tanks move during maneuvers in Silopi, near Habur border gate with Iraq, southeastern Turkey. (AP)
Erdogan also said Turkey would take political, economic as well as military measures against Iraqi Kurds’ steps toward independence and also suggested that Turkey could halt oil flows from a pipeline from northern Iraq.
Erdogan said: “Let’s see where - and through which channels - will they sell their oil. We have the valve. The moment we shut the valve, that’s the end of it.”
Erdogan said a border crossing with Iraq had been closed in one direction and that Turkey would shut it entirely.
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