ANKARA, Turkey — After Iraqi Kurds voted for independence Sept. 25, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to “starve” them into submission by cutting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oil pipeline and closing the border. He even threatened to send troops into Iraqi Kurdistan. But by the end of the week, all Turkey appeared to have done was to stop Turkish airliners from flying to northern Iraq.

Some journalists who went to the presidential palace for Erdogan’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin the evening of Sept. 28 planned to ask the Turkish leader about the difference between his threats and delivery. They were disappointed. Erdogan did not take any questions. He closed the press conference as soon as he and Putin completed their statements about the talks.

Yet there were hints of what drives the two leaders and their differences.

Erdogan stressed that he and Putin agreed on the territorial integrity of Iraq and Syria, meaning no Kurdish secession in either state. He said the Iraqi Kurds had to be “prevented” from making further “grave mistakes” after the Sept. 25 referendum, in which almost 93% voted in favor of independence, with the turnout at 72%.