Turkey says freezing Iraqi Kurd vote is 'not enough'

Turkey said on Thursday the Iraqi Kurdish offer for last month's referendum on independence to be frozen is "not enough", instead urging the Arbil government to cancel the vote.

"It is an important move that the northern Iraqi administration takes a step back but it is not enough. This referendum should be cancelled,"  Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said at a press conference in Ankara.

Turkey, along with Baghdad and other neighbouring countries, strongly opposed the Iraqi Kurds' non-binding vote on independence.

The Kurdistan Regional Government, led by Massud Barzani, said on Wednesday it would propose to the federal government "the freezing of the results of the referendum... and the start of an open dialogue" on the basis of the constitution.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Baghdad would only accept the annulment of the referendum.

The Kurdish offer came after Iraq seized large areas of territory that Kurdish forces had captured over the years beyond the borders of the autonomous region.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim appeared to dismiss the impact of the offer.

"The northern Iraq administration can take whatever decision it wants from now on, it is obvious the decisions will not produce a result that would compensate for the damage," he said at a press conference in Ankara with Somali Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire.

Abadi was in Ankara on Wednesday where he met Yildirim and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss the vote among other regional issues.

The leaders promised to strengthen cooperation as ties between their two countries as ties warm over their shared opposition to the vote.

Source: AFP