BAGHDAD, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday arrived here to hold talks with Iraqi leaders and to demand that the Iraqi Kurds cancel their referendum for independence.
"We have said, several times, that the referendum of Kurdistan is a wrong decision, and today when I will visit Arbil (capital of the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan), I will repeat what I said that the referendum is wrong decision which will create problems and a new crisis," Cavusoglu said at a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Ibrahim al-Jaafari.
"We hope that Arbil would retreat and cancel the referendum, as it is for the interest of the Kurds to preserve Iraq's unity," Cavusoglu said.
"We wish that all the problems between Baghdad and Arbil be solved to preserve the integrity of Iraq. We (Turkey) are ready to play a role to help solving the problems if the two sides asked us," he said.
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PacificSentinel: Lets be frank here, the main reason Turkey has a problem with Kurdish independence is that a large chunk of Turkey is actually part of Kurdistan, as you can see in the above map.