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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened a military intervention in Iraq in response to the Iraqi Kurdish region’s referendum on independence from Baghdad.

According to media reports, Erdogan, speaking at a conference in the Turkish capital of Ankara as Iraqi Kurds voted in their region on Monday, said that Kurdish independence was unacceptable to his country and that this was a “matter of survival.”

He pointed to Turkish military exercises currently taking place on Turkey’s border with the Iraqi Kurdish region. Erdogan said: “Our military is not (at the border) for nothing.” He also added: “We could arrive suddenly one night.”

He also said Turkey would take political, economic as well as military measures against Iraqi Kurds’ steps toward independence and also suggested that Turkey could halt oil flows from a pipeline from northern Iraq.

To remind, large numbers of people took part in a landmark vote on independence for Iraq's Kurdistan region on Monday, amid growing opposition both at home and abroad.
Votes are still being counted, with a big victory for "yes" expected. Kurds say it will give them a mandate to negotiate secession, but Iraq's PM denounced it as "unconstitutional."