ERBIL, Iraq (Dispatches) -- Iraqi Kurdistan’s head Massoud Barzani on Sunday defied international calls to forgo a planned referendum on possible secession from the Arab country, plunging the region to fresh uncertainty.
His decision to go ahead with the planned vote on Monday drew prompt reaction from the central Iraqi government and regional countries.
Iran halted flights to and from Kurdish regions in northern Iraq in the first concrete measure against the plebiscite which is also rejected by Turkey.
Iranian authorities stopped air traffic to the international airports of Erbil and Sulaimaniya, in Iraqi Kurdistan, upon a request from Baghdad, Fars News Agency said.
Turkey, meanwhile, said on Sunday its aircraft launched strikes against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) targets in northern Iraq’s Gara region after spotting militants preparing to attack Turkish military outposts on the border.
"Turkey will never ever tolerate any status change or any new formations on its southern borders,” Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.
"The KRG will be primarily responsible for the probable developments after this referendum,” he said, using the acronym for the Iraqi Regional Government.
The KRG has resisted calls to delay the referendum by the United Nations, the United States and Britain who fear it could further destabilize the region.   
Barzani tried to play down the fallout from his decision, telling a news conference in Erbil that he did not expect conflict with Baghdad following the referendum.
"We don't expect any kind of military conflict with Iraq," he told reporters. "That kind of thought doesn't even cross our mind."
In a televised speech aired by state TV, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the poll remains "unconstitutional,” reiterating that Baghdad "will not recognize its outcome.”
"We will never forsake our Kurdish citizens, their security and welfare. We reject the sectarian, racist state,” Abadi said, alluding to the independent state sought by the Kurds.
He said leaderships had the duty of "protecting civilians from surrounding dangers rather than endangering them and implicating them in useless conflicts,” in an obvious repetition of his earlier warning that the vote could spark a civil war.
Abadi also accused Kurdistan government of corruption in its handling of oil production at areas under its control, where oil revenue sharing had been a central issue of dispute between Baghdad and Erbil.
Barzani sought to solace Baghdad. "This referendum is not to draw the border of Kurdistan - this referendum is not to impose any status quo on any area, and after the referendum we are ready to start the long process of dialogue with Baghdad."
However, he emphasized the Kurds were "never going back to Baghdad to renegotiate the failed partnership we had in the past."
Barzani accused Iraq of becoming a "theocratic, sectarian state," saying his "partnership” with the Arab country was over.  
In a pack distributed at the conference, Barzani said, "Kurdistan's inherent right to self-determination does not depend on the future of Iraqi conduct."
Although the referendum vote is expected to pass, some critics have accused Barzani of calling the vote in order to stoke nationalist sentiment ahead of parliamentary elections.
Most political parties in the Kurdistan parliament have supported the poll, but the second-largest party, Gorran, has criticized the calling of the referendum, labeling it "illegal".
Mudah Bakhtiar, a member of the PUK political bureau of Jalal Talabani, told journalists on Saturday that his party "believes that the alternative proposed by the UN and the major powers is acceptable."
Western countries are backing a UN-supported "alternative" plan for immediate negotiations on future relations in exchange for dropping the referendum.
There has also been controversy over the extent of the remit of the referendum, which includes a number of disputed areas including Sinjar and Kirkuk.
Kirkuk has been controlled by Kurdish militants since clashes with Daesh in 2014, when Peshmarga used a vacuum from the flight of Iraqi troops to seize the city. Kurds claim the multiethnic city, which includes Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen, as their cultural capital, and armed groups have warned they will not allow the city to return to Baghdad's control without a fight.
Abadi has warned that Iraq would have to "intervene" militarily if Iraqis were threatened with violence following the referendum.
The Turkish government, otherwise a close ally of the KRG, has threatened to close the border with the region over the poll, which has enraged nationalists who fear it could lead to similar demands from Kurds in Turkey.
Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wrote on Twitter Saturday, "If the referendum is not canceled, there will be serious consequences."
Kurdish leaders, he wrote, "must immediately refrain from this terrible mistake which will trigger new crises in the region."
The UN, U.S., UK and EU have also called for the referendum to be delayed or cancelled and for Erbil to resume negotiations with Baghdad.
Last week, ethnic Turkmens in Kirkuk clashed with Kurdish residents of the oil-rich city before more Peshmerga militants were deployed to rein in dissent.
The situation in the multi-ethnic city north of Baghdad is reportedly tense and residents are stocking up with supplies in anticipation of a deterioration if the referendum goes ahead. Residents were quoted as saying that food prices have gone up by 20%.