ANKARA (Dispatches) -- Turkey warned Wednesday that plans by the leadership in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region to hold a referendum on independence could lead to civil war, in Ankara's strongest warning yet against next month's poll.
"In that country (Iraq), which has been through so many problems, a referendum on independence can make the situation even worse," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the state TRT Haber broadcaster.
"God forbid, it could even bring it to civil war," he added.
Turkey has a substantial Kurdish minority which is sometimes estimated as making up around a quarter of its total population of just under 80 million.
Ankara has in recent years forged strong ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq but is extremely wary of any move towards independence by the region.
Turkish security forces in the southeast of the country are still fighting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a deadly three-decade insurgency.
The PKK initially aimed to carve out an independent Kurdish state in the southeast although its declared ambitions are now more focused on autonomy and rights.
Ankara is also concerned about the presence of the Syrian Kurdish militia People's Protection Units (YPG) in the border area, fearing an autonomous Kurdish region could also emerge in northern Syria.
Analysts have little doubt that the September 25 referendum would result in a 'Yes' for an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
But the result would be non binding and leave the approximately five million Kurds of northern Iraq some way away from actual independence.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in June strongly criticized the referendum plan, calling it "an error" and "a threat" to Iraq's territorial integrity.
"The fundamental reason for our opposition to this referendum is the importance of preserving Iraq's territorial and political integrity," Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in a radio interview Wednesday, denying any ill will towards the Kurds.
Most Kurds are spread between Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. Iraqi oil in the Kurdistan region is exported through Turkey, a key economic lifeline for the region.
On Monday, Zionist Union MK Ksenia Svetlova said a number of senior Iraqi Kurd officials have visited Occupied Palestine over the last several weeks urging the occupying regime of Israel to both support its independence and send a message to Washington to do the same.
The Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday that PM Benjamin Netanyahu told a delegation of U.S. Republican congressmen on Thursday that he is in favor of an independent Kurdish state in parts of Iraq.
Netanyahu, according to a source who took part in the discussion, expressed his "positive attitude” toward a Kurdish state in the Kurdish areas of Iraq, saying that the Kurds are a "brave, pro-Western people who share our values.”
Netanyahu’s comments to the congressmen came the same day that U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Barzani to postpone the independence referendum.
Svetlova, who chairs a Knesset caucus for strengthening relations between the occupying regime of and Kurdish rulers, said that visiting Kurdish officials were looking for Israel’s help in getting Washington to back the independence drive.
"They say that Israel has a strong lobby, and the ear of (U.S. President Donald] Trump, and that they would be very happy if we could help,” she said.
Svetlova said she was "100% sure that Kurdish independence is good for us because we need to look for partners in the Middle East.”