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Barzani: Kurds aim to break away from Iraq

August 10, 2017 at 1:56 am

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (L) meets with President of Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (IKRG) Masoud Barzani (R) at Presidential Palace in Iraq on 30 March 2017 [Hamit Hüseyin/Anadolu Agency]

The Kurdish referendum which is due to be held in September aims at breaking the region “away from Iraq”, the President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region, Masoud Barzani, said yesterday.

Rejecting calls to postpone the referendum, Barzani said: “The referendum concerns all parties and the entire Kurdish nation, and is not related to a specific person.”

He pointed out that “the principles of partnership with Iraq no longer exist,” and that “the proportion of Kurds in the Iraqi Army was 40 per cent, but today it has diminished or faded.”

We cannot accept the current positions of Baghdad

he said.

Iraqi Kurdistan plans to hold a referendum on 25 September.

This referendum is not binding and is based on a survey of the residents of the three provinces in Iraqi Kurdistan, Erbil, Sulaymaniyah and Dohuk, and other disputed territories, on their willingness to break away from Iraq.

The Iraqi Government has refused to accept the referendum, while a number of international powers, including Germany, have warned that it will increase instability in the already war-torn country.

Read: Kurdish leaders to reactivate Parliament