Turkey PM says Iraq to join drill but rules out war

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - As the people of the Kurdistan Region began casting their ballots on Monday in a historic referendum on whether to secede from Iraq, Turkey's Prime Minister Binali Yildirim ruled out any prospects of war despite a massive army drill on the border.

Speaking to Turkish news channels, Yildirim said the vote laid ground for the emergence of a "hot conflict" but added he wanted to ensure his people that the army was not going to war.

Yildirim, who along with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been quite vocal in pushing Turkey's anti-referendum agenda. He noted that Iraqi forces would also participate in the now week-long military drill on the border with Kurdistan without further elaborating on the scope of their collaboration.

As the pro-government Islamist and ultranationalist media stirred up the hype in the run-up to the referendum, at times with strong anti-Semitic tones associating the Kurdish leadership to conspiracies of Zionist projects, expectations of an army incursion beyond the border grew among the public.

But Yildirim limited any prospects of action against the Kurdistan Region to diplomatic and commercial sanctions.

He stated Ankara would from now on, "coordinate only with Iraq's Federal Government in Baghdad," sidelining the Kurdish capital of Erbil where Turkey has a consulate.

Agreements on border crossings and oil exports, he added, would only be between Iraq and Turkey, implying the scrapping of his country's oil deals with the Kurdistan Region.

Turks fear any attempt at statehood by the Kurds in Iraq would embolden others in Turkey, Syria, and Iran in seeking self-rule, if not outright independence.

Editing by G.H. Renaud