ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey has warned Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region that “there will most certainly be a price to pay” for its insistence on holding an independence referendum later this month.

A Foreign Ministry statement released Thursday also welcomed an Iraqi parliament vote that rejected the Sept. 25 referendum as unconstitutional.

The statement said: “The (Kurdish region) should be aware that there will most certainly be a price to pay for insisting on its approach for a referendum despite all our friendly recommendations.” The statement did not elaborate.

It described the Iraqi Kurdish leadership’s “increasingly emotional statements” in favor of independence as “alarming.”

Turkey, which has a large Kurdish population and is battling Kurdish insurgents, has forged close ties to Iraq’s autonomous region but opposes an independent Kurdish state.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source www.washingtonpost.com