Since the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) announced in June that it will hold a referendum on declaring independence from Iraq, the Turkish government has maintained a coolheaded approach — until now. As the Sept. 25 referendum approaches, Ankara seems to be toughening its stance against Iraqi Kurdistan independence.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry posted a press release on its website Sept. 14 supporting the Iraqi parliament's Sept. 12 resolution rejecting the KRG’s vote on independence. The ministry release read, “We welcome the decision taken by the Iraqi Council of Representatives … as the clear expression of the importance given to Iraq’s political unity and territorial integrity and we strongly support the said decision.”

The statement added, “Despite the warnings of Turkey and all the members of the international community who act with common sense, we are concerned by the KRG leadership’s persistence and its increasingly emotional statements on the referendum. We would like to stress that [the] KRG should keep in mind that continued insistence on carrying out this referendum despite all the friendly advice to the contrary shall have a cost. In that regard, we invite the KRG to act with common sense and to give up its erroneous stance.”

An interesting aspect of the media coverage of the Foreign Ministry statement is that even though the statement used the more neutral phrase “shall have a cost,” Turkish and regional news outlets have claimed Turkey threatened that the KRG “will most certainly pay a price” if it goes ahead with the Sept. 24 referendum. Turkey’s governmental-owned news organization TRT, the country’s pro-government media and the Iraqi Kurdish news outlet Rudaw all used the tougher wording, which interestingly does not exist in the English-language version of the Foreign Ministry announcement. The Turkish version of the press release is even less threatening than the English version.