Kurdistan referendum a 'God-given' right: Turkey's AKP lawmaker

ANKARA, Turkey (Kurdistan24) - A lawmaker from Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) recently described a decision by the Kurdistan Region to hold a referendum on independence from Iraq as a "God-given right."

Orhan Atalay, the MP who represents the Kurdish-majority province of Ardahan in the Turkish Parliament, told Kurdistan24 on Saturday that the Kurdistan Region did not have to ask for "permission from anyone" to hold the referendum set to take place on September 25.

Atalay is one of few voices from inside the AKP that have welcomed the decision that the Kurdistan Region's main parties and President Masoud Barzani took last month.

"I do not expect us, the AKP that govern Turkey, to put a blockade on a Kurdish state in Iraq. There is no reason and justification for that," Atalay said.

"An embargo like the one [Saudi-led] Gulf countries imposed on Qatar won't happen," he added.

As President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, and Foreign Ministry all in unison rejected the referendum, pro-government media began circulating reports that Ankara could shut down all commerce with Kurdistan and stop its oil exports.

Previously, another Kurdish AKP lawmaker, Galip Ensarioglu, said that it was up to the Kurdistan Region's people to decide and that all others should 'respect' a decision on independence.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) as well has openly voiced support for the referendum.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) remained silent while the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) stated strong opposition.

Atalay criticized the current Middle Eastern borders that were drawn in the aftermath of the WWI, adding they "were not based on the sociological realities of the region."

"This geography will never remain the same," Atalay predicted, proposing that Kurdistan Region and Turkey could get along as "good neighbors."

(Azad Altun and Onur Can Kankal of Kurdistan24's Ankara Bureau conducted the interview.)

Editing by G.H. Renaud