BAGHDAD: Iraq and Turkey on Thursday stepped up the pressure on Iraqi Kurdistan over its planned independence referendum, as the governor of oil-rich Kirkuk province that decided to take part in the vote was sacked.

Parliament, at Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi’s request, fired the governor of the northern province, Najm Eddine Karim, in a unanimous vote by 173 MPs present in the house.

With tensions rising, the Iraqi parliament this week also voted to oppose plans by leaders of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq to hold the non-binding Sept 25 referendum.

The independence vote has faced strong opposition from the federal government in Baghdad as well as neighbouring Iran and Turkey, which fear it will stoke separatist aspirations among their own sizeable Kurdish minorities.

Critics of the vote include the United States, the European Union and even some members of Iraq’s 5.5 million-strong Kurdish minority.

Turkey, a strong opponent, warned Iraqi Kurdish leaders on Thursday that any referendum would “have a cost”.

Their “insistence on the referendum despite all friendly advice will definitely have a cost”, the foreign ministry in Ankara said, criticising their “erroneous approach”.

Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin urged the Iraqi Kurdish regional government to “return from this wrong decision as soon as possible”. The move would push Iraqi Kurdistan into “bigger isolation”, he said.

The provincial council of Kirkuk — a region disputed by Baghdad and autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan and home to diverse communities, including Arabs and Turkmen — voted at the end of August to take part in the controversial referendum.

Published in Dawn, September 15th, 2017