Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Turkey's foreign minister has reiterated his country's demand that the Iraqi Kurds cancel a scheduled referendum for independence.
Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters in Baghdad that Turkey's expectation from Irbil, the capital of the autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish region, is "very plain and clear — and that is the annulment of this referendum decision."
Masoud Barzani, the Kurdish region's president, announced the vote on whether to secede from Iraq would be held on Sept. 25.
Cavusoglu says Turkey has been saying all along that "the referendum decision is wrong" and that he would tell the Iraq Kurdish leaders so "once more" when he visits Irbil later on Wednesday.
Turkey — which has a large Kurdish population and is battling Kurdish rebels — is strongly opposed to an independent Kurdish state.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
