Turkey objects to illegal referendum 'not Kurds'

By Satuk Bugra Kutlugun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin on Thursday said Turkey's objection was to the illegal referendum that was held by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), "not against Kurdish people."

During a live television interview, Kalin was asked about the details of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's official visit to Iran.

Talking about the Sept. 25 illegitimate referendum in Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Iraq, Kalin said: "We are on the same page with Iran on that issue. Protecting Iraq's territorial integrity is not a thing that just Turkey and Iran agree on. Practically the whole world thinks the same."

Kalin said the KRG had their own security, parliament, borders and customs and military, including the peshmerga forces. "They took a step jeopardizing all of that by holding this referendum," he added.

The presidential spokesman also added that Turkey's aim by objecting to the referendum was "not to punish Kurdish people in Iraq".

"What we aim is to make the regional government take a step back from their mistake," he said.

On Wednesday, speaking at a joint news conference with his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, Erdogan said: “What is the referendum organized by northern Iraq’s regional administration for? No country in the world apart from Israel recognizes it.

“A decision made at the table with Mossad [Israeli intelligence agency] is not legitimate, it is illegitimate.”

On Sept. 25, Iraqis in Kurdish Regional Government (KRG)-held areas -- and in several areas disputed between Baghdad and Erbil -- voted on whether to declare independence from Iraq.

According to results announced by the KRG, almost 93 percent of registered voters cast ballots in favor of independence.

The illegitimate referendum was heavily criticized by most regional and international actors, many warning that it would distract from Iraq’s ongoing fight against terrorism and further destabilize the already-volatile region.

Kalin said another major issue discussed durring the visit was Syria, on which Ankara, Moscow and Tehran differ namely about Syria's President Bashar al-Assad's future.

"They support Assad and his regime openly. What we think is that instead of a regime that lost its credibility, a new administration backed by the people should take over," Kalin said.

He also added that for the past several days, representatives from the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Turkish Armed Forces and National Intelligence Service (MIT) had held "intense and serious" talks with their Russian and Iranian counterparts.

During a meeting in Kazakh capital Astana on May 4, the guarantor countries -- Russia, Turkey, and Iran -- signed a deal to establish de-escalation zones in Syria.

The three guarantor states, as well as representatives of the Damascus-based Assad regime and some opposition factions, met in Astana in September for a sixth round of talks aimed at ending the six-year conflict.

A December cease-fire in Syria brokered by the three countries led to the Astana talks, which are being held in parallel to UN-backed discussions in Geneva, to find a political solution to the six-year conflict.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict, according to the UN.