DIYARBAKIR, Turkey — Iraqi Kurdistan is gripped by excitement ahead of the Sept. 25 independence referendum. The sense of hopeful anticipation, however, is not limited to Iraqi Kurds. Their cousins in neighboring Turkey — reeling from Ankara’s heaviest crackdown in years — are watching the process with an equal excitement, hoping that a vote for independence will boost the standing of Kurds across the region. And some are not only watching. Kurdish groups on good terms with Massoud Barzani’s Kurdistan Regional Government have joined forces to promote the referendum, striving to allay deep-rooted Turkish apprehension and hostility toward Kurdish independence.

The Initiative for Support of the Independence Referendum includes small Kurdish movements such as the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), the Turkey Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Azadi Movement, the North Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Freedom and Socialism Party and the Kurdistan Socialist Party (PSK) as well as seven independent figures. Turkey’s main Kurdish political movement, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) — whose leaders are languishing in jail — is not part of the initiative.

Since its creation in mid-July, the platform has met with Turkish opposition figures and nongovernmental groups, but its bids for meetings with government representatives have so far failed.

The platform is seeking contacts with the United States and European countries as the referendum has received little international support. “We got appointments from the European Union and American embassies,” Vahit Aba, a PAK activist on the platform, told Al-Monitor. “We will explain to them why we back the referendum, that they should respect the outcome because every nation has the right to self-determination, that this is in line with international law, that our brothers in the south have that right, too, and that this should be recognized internationally.”