KRG no threat to Turkey: Barzani

ARBIL

Arbil has never been a threat to Ankara, and will remain to not be so, according to Nechirvan Barzani, prime mnister of the Kurdistan Regional Gvoernment (KRG) in northern Iraq.

Speaking at a press conference after casting his vote in the Kurdish independence referendum in Arbil, Barzani told reporters that Turkey, and others should see the vote for what it is, “an expression of the will of the people exclusive for the Iraqi Kurdistan.”

 “We are not and will not threaten Turkey’s national security, and neither will we intervene in the Turkish affairs, not today, and neither in the future. We want to be a good neighbor,” Barzani said, according to Rudaw.

 Barzani said that he wanted to visit Turkey to meet Turkish officials, but was denied.

 “It has been two months that I have been trying and requesting to visit Turkey so that I will explain that this process of ours is not a threat to Turkey. It is unfortunate that they did not agree to this opportunity to me — or us — to explain it to them up close,” Barzani said.

“I want to say on behalf of the people of Kurdistan, and the Kurdistan Regional Government, to reiterate that Turkey does not have a better friend than the Kurds and the Kurdistan Region in the area. We hope that this relation, for which we worked so hard, not to suffer as the result of [the vote],” Rudaw quoted Barzani as saying.

Barzani, son of KRG leader Masoud Barzani, said that Arbil is “thankful for the support they received from Turkey.”