SOUTH KURDISTAN (IRAQ) MESOP LATEST : PUK agrees with KDP, other Kurdish parties over decisive referendum, official says

1 May 2016 – The chief of the Political office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Mala Bakhtiar has stated that his party has come to terms with the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and other parties in the Kurdish region in the north of Iraq over holding a referendum on the division of the region from Iraq.

According to Iraq Press, Mala Bakhtiar told a press conference that his party has reached an agreement with the parties over the decisive referendum that asks the people in the region whether they want to remain in Iraq or they like to live in an independent Kurdish state. He reiterated that Kurds have no problem with Iraq as long as democracy and the constitution are preserved. He, however, said that Kurds have the right to decide their fate if the problems between the region and the central government in Baghdad are not resolved. www.mesop.de