We do not want Iraq to be divided: Turkey opposition MP

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA

The deputy chairman of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has warned that a planned referendum on the independence of northern Iraq's Kurdish region would cause serious regional instability.

Speaking to journalists in the parliament in Ankara Thursday, Ozturk Yilmaz said the international community would not recognize the Sept. 25 referendum, which was announced by Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Masoud Barzani.

"We do not want Iraq to be divided at a time when we are trying to back the territorial integrity of Syria," Yilmaz said.

"A major part of the international community will not recognize the referendum."

Earlier this year, the Turkmen Front in northern Iraq strongly opposed a decision by Kirkuk’s provincial council calling for the Kurdish regional flag to be raised -- alongside Iraq’s national flag -- over the oil-rich city’s state institutions.

Turkmen also reject a planned referendum -- slated for Sept. 25 -- on whether the northern Kurdish region should formally secede from the Iraqi state.

Reminding that even the Iraq's central government would not recognize the referendum, Yilmaz said the referendum would upset the delicate balance in the region.

"Such kind of provocative step will create serious instability.

"Everybody should avoid steps that will drag Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmen into a risky war environment."

After Arabs and Kurds, Turkmen constitute Iraq’s third-largest ethnic group, with a number of Turkmen communities concentrated in disputed areas between Baghdad and Iraq’s northern Kurdish region.

While there are no official figures regarding Iraq’s Turkmen population, Turkmen officials put the number at about 7 percent of Iraq’s roughly 33 million people.