Turkey’s
Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli has warned that next week’s Kurdish
independence referendum in northern Iraq could pose a major risk. He said
Ankara would take “every step” needed to thwart any similar steps in its mainly
Kurdish southeast.
On September
19, Turkish troops dug in on the southern border and turned their weapons
towards Kurdish-run northern Iraq.
As reported
by the Reuters news agency, tanks and rocket launchers mounted on armoured
vehicles faced the Iraqi frontier, about 2km away. Mechanical diggers tore up
agricultural fields for the army to set up positions in the flat, dry
farmlands.
The
military drill, launched without warning on September 18, is due to last until
September 26, Turkish military sources said. This is one day after the planned
referendum.
A Reuters
reporter saw armoured vehicles carrying heavy weaponry and soldiers taking
positions in specially dug areas, their weapons directed across the border. A
generator and satellite dish could be seen at one location.
Meanwhile,
Iraqi Kurdish authorities are defying growing international pressure to call
off the vote, which Iraq’s neighbours fear will fuel unrest among their own
Kurdish populations. Western allies say it could detract from the fight against
Islamic State.
“A change that will mean the violation of
Iraq’s territorial integrity poses a major risk for Turkey,” Canikli said. “The
disruption of Syria and Iraq’s territorial integrity will ignite a bigger,
global conflict with an unseen end.”
According
to Reuters, Kurds in north Syria, like those in Iraq, have capitalised on the
turmoil in both countries to consolidate a degree of autonomy. Washington has
supported Syrian Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State, despite Turkish
protests.
However,
the US and other Western countries have voiced concerns and asked Iraqi Kurdish
leader Massoud Barzani to call off the vote, citing fears the referendum could
distract attention from the fight against Islamic State militants.
Iraq’s
Supreme Federal Court ordered Barzani to suspend the vote and approved Iraqi
Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s demand to consider “the breakaway of any
region or province from Iraq as unconstitutional”, his office said on September
18.
https://www.neweurope.eu/article/turkey-warns-global-conflict-iraq-syria-break/