President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said there were forces playing a dirty game aimed at splitting Turkey at the 40th Headmen’s Meeting held at the Presidential Palace Complex in Ankara on Wednesday.

“Turkey is not only facing the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), but also many other terrorist groups. Turkey is faced with a terror siege,” said Erdoğan.

“They tried to implement the same dirty game they are playing in other countries in our region but they were not successful. Now we are facing a newer and bigger scenario. The goal is to divide our country,” he added.

Kurds same as Turkmen and Arabs

Erdoğan that Turkey's fight was against terrorist groups in the region but not against the Kurdish people.

"We regard the Kurds in Iraq and Syria the same as we regard Turkmen and Arabs," he said.

Stressing that "no ethnicity is superior to the others," the president said: "Our only concern when fighting against PKK and Daesh is whether somebody is a member of those terror groups."

Regional unity

“During the First Gulf War, when our Kurdish brothers in northern Iraq faced a massacre, we immediately opened our borders. In the same way, we opened our borders to the 250,000 people who escaped from the turmoil in Iraq and came to this country. We have no financial expectations,” said Erdoğan.

“Without taking into account the ethnically diverse structure of the region, those who act with a sense of opportunism will be held to account,” he continued, emphasizing that Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) leader Masoud Barzani had no place in Kirkuk. “The regional government is responsible of every drop of blood shed in Iraq.”

The president condemned Barzani’s illegitimate referendum, which faced strong opposition from most regional and international actors, including the U.S., Turkey and Iran, who warned that the poll would distract from Iraq’s fight against terrorism and further destabilize the region.

Turkey will do what is necessary

“PKK, Daesh, PYD, YPG… We will not allow anyone to exert power there. If necessary, we will come overnight all of a sudden,” said Erdoğan.

Turkey is ready to fully cooperate with the Baghdad government to end the presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorist organization in Iraq, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Monday.

“All lands to the east and north of Ankara, as well as the west and south, have a place in our heart,” he added.

Somalia bombing

“The only country that fulfilled its duty of humanity following the heinous terror attack in Somalia is Turkey. We will always support the victims and the oppressed,” Erdoğan said.

More than 300 people were killed by twin bomb explosions in Mogadishu on Monday, as locals packed hospitals in search of friends and relatives caught by Somalia's deadliest attack in a decade.

The death toll has steadily risen since Saturday, when the blasts struck at two busy junctions in the heart of the capital city. One truck bomb detonated near a fuel truck, creating an enormous fireball.

KRG referendum creates chaos: Turkish FM The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq failed to follow Turkish advice before launching an independence referendum, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Wednesday.He was speaking days after Baghdad sent troops to take control of Kirkuk, an oil-rich region that had been disputed between the Kurdish administration and the central government.“The KRG made a wrong calculation and did not listen to our advice,” the minister told a televised news conference in Ankara. “We told them that there might be problems [like those] they are facing right now.“It thought that it would unite Kurds but, on the contrary, it has divided the Kurds in Iraq.”The illegitimate referendum was carried out in the three provinces allocated to Kurdish control under the Iraqi constitution as well as disputed areas such as Kirkuk that Kurdish forces seized in 2014 as Daesh sent Iraqi government troops into retreat.Cavusoglu said the vote had led to “a big chaos” across the region.The referendum was condemned by all regional powers, but Israel, as well as the UN and U.S. Most warned it would distract from the fight against terrorism and further destabilize the region.Along with a raft of other retaliatory measures, Iraq’s Council of Ministers on Monday said legal procedures were under way against all KRG members involved in conducting the poll.Turning to the ongoing diplomatic dispute with the U.S., Cavusoglu said cooperation was the way to resolve the row, which has seen both countries suspend some visa services.“We could cooperate but there is an independent judiciary in Turkey,” he said, referring to U.S. protests over the arrest of Turkish employees at their missions, which led to the fallout earlier this month.Cavusoglu added: “We will surely make cooperation when there is something appropriate to our laws, our constitution and our sovereignty… Turkey will not bow to demands or we will reject conditions that we cannot accept from the beginning.”The U.S. staff were held on suspicion of ties to the Fetullah Gulen Organization, said to have organized last year’s attempted military coup.Last week, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin also stressed the independence of Turkey’s justice system and said respect for it could lead to the row being resolved in a day.

Turkey supports Iraq’s acts in Kirkuk: PM Addressing the operation launched in Kirkuk after the illegitimate referendum held by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) on Sept. 25, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said that Turkey supports Iraq’s acts in Kirkuk.Yıldırım, during a speech at the TRT World Forum held in Istanbul on Wednesday, said Turkey’s stance on the issue of Iraq is clear. He said that his country attaches great importance to Iraq’s territorial unity.“A referendum which clearly violates the Iraqi constitution was held. Turkey has certain steps to take and we are gradually implementing them.”Turkey closely following developments in Kirkuk: PMHe added that Turkey expects the central Iraqi government to show necessary sensitivity in restoring the demographic structure of the regions recaptured by Iraq, which was forcibly altered by the KRG.Turkmens and Arabs are demanding to return to the pre-2005 situation in Kirkuk and to create a structure that fairly represents all ethnicities with a centralized management model. Kirkuk’s 2005 population of 840,000 was raised to 1,600,000 by Kurds strategically positioned in the city to alter its demographics.On Monday, Iraqi forces captured the oil-rich Kirkuk city, three weeks after the KRG held a referendum on the secession of northern Iraq’s Kurdish region.Idlib operation Addressing the Idlib operation, the prime minister said that Turkey has always supported Syrian refugees by opening its doors to them and has strived for the resolution of the dispute adding that “there are now more than 3 million refugees in Turkey.”“We initiated the Astana process as Turkey, Iran and Russia and initiated efforts to establish a security cordon to ensure security and end conflicts in Idlib.”Somalia bomb attackYıldırım expressed his condolences for the victims of the terror attack that occurred on Saturday in Somalia, killing more than 300 people and injuring at least 400 others. “I strongly condemn this cowardly terror attack,” he said.Iraq’s advances ‘beginning of the end’ for BarzaniIraqi PM rules out civil war, warns of 'provocations'Turkey extends state of emergency for 3 more months