The need to stay calm on the referendum

Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani went ahead with the independence referendum despite all the oppositions. 

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım explained how a complicated and tensed period was waiting for Turkey.
He also emphasized a couple of times that they would have "closer dialogue with Baghdad." 

A subject alarming everyone primarily is Kirkuk and the situation of the "contested regions" defined in article 140 of the Iraqi constitution.

The problems in these regions were never solved and were always postponed because they were seen as ethnically very complicated.

Those who were expelled from the province of Kirkuk were supposed to return and those who were settled afterwards were to be sent back to their old places. The places separated from Kirkuk were to be given back to Kirkuk. Once the normal population structure was reached, the population census was supposed to be made under international observance to be followed by a referendum.

Baghdad and Iraqi Arabs were busy with the bloody Shia-Sunni conflict. The power of Iran increased.

During this period, instead of calming down the problems, Ankara clashed with Baghdad. Barzani's power enhanced. The Iraqi army fled before the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga gained dominance in Kirkuk, and Barzani added that Kirkuk was added to his own regional governance by saying he put it into implementation with article 140 of the Iraqi constitution on June 27, 2014. Furthermore, Barzani declared Kirkuk as the "capital of Kurdistan" in their constitution.

Will the Turkmens and the Arabs accept this imposition?

Kirkuk is not only a province where emotions are focused on, but...