Iraqi Kurds brace for independence referendum on Sept. 25

PanARMENIAN.Net - Officials in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region have announced that the northern territory will hold an independence referendum on September 25, Al Jazeera reports.

Masoud Barzani, the president of the Iraqi Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), announced the vote on Twitter on Wednesday, June 7.

Hamin Hawrami, a senior presidential adviser, said on his own Twitter account that the decision follows a meeting of the major Kurdish political parties in Erbil, the region's capital.

The referendum on whether to secede from Iraq will be held in the three governorates that make up the Kurdish region and in the areas that are disputed by the Kurdish and Iraqi governments but are currently under Kurdish military control.

The disputed areas include swaths of northern territory that are claimed by both Kurdish Iraq and Baghdad, including the key oil-rich province of Kirkuk.

Opposition in Baghdad to Kurdish Iraq becoming independent would become even greater if the region tried to take disputed territory along with it.

But it is not clear whether a "Yes" vote, which is expected to be the result, will lead to the declaration of independence.