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Groton Daily Independent
Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 079 ~ 33 of 40
region.”
“We will take measures to safeguard the nation’s unity and protect all Iraqis,” he warned in a televised
address from Baghdad.
The United States and United Nations both opposed the vote, describing it as a unilateral and potentially
destabilizing move.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. wouldn’t alter its “historic relationship”
with Iraqi Kurds but the referendum would increase hardships for the Kurdish region of Iraq. She said the Islamic State group and other extremists are hoping to “exploit instability and discord.”
Statements from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed regret that the vote was held and said issues between Iraq’s federal government and Kurdish region should be resolved through dialogue.
The promise of an independent state has long been at the center of Iraqi Kurdish politics. When colonial powers drew the map of the Middle East after World War I, the Kurds were divided among Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.
That dream was evident among some of the voters in the disputed city of Kirkuk.
“I feel so great and happy. I feel we’ll be free,” said Kurdish resident Suad Pirot after voting. “Nobody will rule us. We will be independent.”
The oil-rich city has large Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen and Christian communities, and it has seen some low- level clashes in the days leading up to the vote. A curfew was imposed Monday evening for fear of more violence.
Baghdad residents strongly criticized the referendum, saying it would raise sectarian tensions and create an “Israel in Iraq.”
“This is a division of Iraq,” said journalist Raad Mohammad. Another Baghdad resident, Ali al-Rubayah, described the vote as a “black day in the history of the Kurds.”
Lawyer Tariq al-Zubaydi said the referendum was inappropriate amid the “ongoing threat of terrorism and Islamic State” militants.
“The country is going through a dif cult period. This requires a coming together of our efforts, he said. “A uni ed country is better for all.”
Speaking in Istanbul, Erdogan said Turkey doesn’t recognize the referendum and declared its results would be “null and void.”
Erdogan also suggested Turkey could halt the ow of oil from a pipeline from northern Iraq, a lifeline for the land-locked Kurdish region battling a severe economic crisis.
Turkey has urged the international community — and especially regional countries — not to recognize the vote and urged Iraq Kurdish leaders to abandon “utopic goals,” accusing them of endangering peace and stability for Iraq and the whole region.
“We could arrive suddenly one night,” Erdogan said, pointing to Turkish military exercises underway along Turkey’s border with the Iraqi Kurdish region.
“Our military is not (there) for nothing,” he added.
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Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra in Baghdad, Balint Szlanko and Ali Abdul-Hassan in Irbil,
Iraq, Bram Janssen in Kirkuk, Iraq, and Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.
More buildings, perhaps lives at risk following Mexico quake By MARIA VERZA and CHRISTINE ARMARIO, Associated Press
MEXICO CITY (AP) — As many as 360 buildings and homes are in danger of collapse or with major dam- age in Mexico City nearly a week after a magnitude 7.1 earthquake collapsed 38 structures.
The risk of delayed collapse is real: The cupola of Our Lady of Angels Church, damaged and cracked by the Sept. 19 quake, split in half and crashed to the ground Sunday evening. There were no injuries.
Nervous neighbors continued calling police Monday as apparently new cracks appeared in their apart- ment buildings or existing ones worsened, even as the city struggled to get back to normality.