MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Erdogan made his remarks as he met with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which later said that Tehran and Ankara should respond to the referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan's independence.
"What is the referendum organized by northern Iraq’s regional administration for? No country in the world apart from Israel recognizes it … A decision made at the table with Mossad is not legitimate, it is illegitimate," Erdogan said at the joint press conference with Rouhani, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.
The Turkish president added that Turkey and Iran agreed on maintaining relations with Iraq’s central government.
The vote on Iraqi Kurdistan independence took place on September 25 and resulted in 92.7 percent of voters casting their ballots for the autonomous region's independence from Baghdad. The authorities of Iraq declared the referendum illegitimate and stressed that they would not hold talks with the regional government. The independence vote is widely criticized not only by the Iraqi central government but also by a number of other countries and international organizations. Israel is the only state in the world that officially supported the holding of a referendum on independence in Iraqi Kurdistan.
