Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday that the Iraqi Kurdish region's plans to hold an independence referendum on Sept. 25 show a lack of both reason and experience.
"I see this [referendum] as something that is beyond abdication of reason; this is critically political inexperience, there cannot be such an understanding of politics," he said in an interview broadcasted live on A News.
Erdoğan stressed that Turkey would not allow steps which would threaten Iraq's territorial integrity.
Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) leader Massoud "Barzani knows very well what we think about the issue. His remarks, in my opinion, are very wrong. He knows our stance on Iraq's territorial integrity."
Erdoğan said his country would make his stance on the issue even clearer after a national security meeting on Sept. 22, just days before the planned referendum.
