Turkey says it won't accept Kurdish independence vote

ANKARA – Turkey's government will never accept a separate Kurdish state in neighboring Iraq and won't refrain from taking steps to prevent it, the Turkish prime minister said Friday.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim again called on Iraqi Kurdish leaders to abandon plans for a referendum on independence, saying it wasn't too late for them to turn away "from this adventure."

"This decision for a referendum and the realization of this referendum is a matter of Turkish national security," Yildirim said. "Turkey is determined -- and wouldn't hesitate to use its rights emanating from international agreements and bilateral agreements where matters of national security are concerned."

"A change to the existing statuses of Syria or Iraq would be a result that we would never accept and would do the necessary against within our rights," he said.