President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan orders the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces to be prepared for anything at "any moment" regarding the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s decision of independence after the referendum held on September 25.
According to Hürriyet daily the commanders-in-chief of the armed forces responded with "We are ready". Erdoğan gathered with the head of Turkey’s fascist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli, Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar and Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım at Parliamentary Speaker İsmail Kahraman’s office in a meeting at the end of the reception. The meeting lasted 20 minutes, the report said.
Erdoğan’s statement to the commanders also includes the possibility of a war or an armed attack in response to the Kurdish independence decision.
Refusing to answer questions asked during the reception, Yaşar Güler, Commander of the Turkish Land Forces, only stated, regarding armed unmanned aerial vehicles (SİHA), that "We deem the infantry rifle and armed unmanned aerial vehicles as the same", underlining that SİHAs are as indispensable for the army as infantry rifles.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), under the leadership of Masoud Barzani, had voted for independence from Iraq on September 25 despite disapproval from the neighbouring governments of Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
On October 2, Turkish PM Binali Yıldırım asked KRG authorities to conduct negotiations with Baghdad.
'KRG WILL PAY THE PRICE'
Erdoğan said on Sept. 30. that Kurdistan Regional Government would pay the price over KRG’s independence referendum.
"We never regret what we have done in the past, but now the circumstances have changed, the northern Iraqi regional government which we have been giving all kinds of support for a long time, has taken a step in spite of our country. So, they will pay the price," Erdoğan said in a speech during the provincial advisory meeting in the eastern province of Erzurum.
"At this moment, we have informed our neighbouring countries including Iran, the central government [of Iraq] and the Syrian side, that we are ready [to take steps] against the negative developments [in the KRG]," he said.
