29 September, 2017
"His Excellency Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi received a phone call from Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim".
Abadi ordered the halt to flights serving airports in Iraqi Kurdistan in retaliation for the independence referendum held on Monday in defiance of Baghdad which reportedly delivered a 92.73 "yes" vote.
The Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority sent a notice on Wednesday to foreign airlines telling them global flights to Arbil and Sulaimaniya in the Kurdish region would be suspended on Friday at 1500 GMT and only domestic flights allowed.
At Irbil's airport, numerous passengers were foreigners who said they were traveling to avoid possibly being stuck once the flight ban goes into effect Friday.
Worldwide carrier Qatar Airways said in a statement Thursday it would cancel its flights after a request from Iraq's Civil Aviation authority.
“It threatens Iraq peaceful coexistence among Iraqis and is a danger to the region,” al Abadi said
Regionally, other carriers including EgyptAir and Royal Jordanian said they will also be suspending flights to Erbil.
Iraqi state TV employees pushed on Tuesday for the dismissal of Kurdish-origin civil servants who participated in Monday's controversial independence referendum.
Units from the Turkish and Iraqi armed forces conducted joint exercises on Turkey's border with Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region yesterday, putting aside last year's fierce Baghdad denunciation of Turkey's stationing of troops on Iraqi territory.
Turkey has the largest Kurdish population in the region and sees the referendum as a serious matter for its own security.
The PKK has been waging an insurgency in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since the 1980s, but also has bases across the border in northern Iraq which Turkey regularly targets.
