Al-monitor.com - Jack Detsch *

The US government has stopped paying Kurdish peshmerga fighters’ salaries after a yearlong agreement expired over the summer, and there are no current plans to renew it.

Huffingtonpost.com - By David L. Phillips

Nearly 93 percent of Iraqi Kurds voted for independence in the referendum on September 25. Now Washington faces a choice. The U.S. can either support the Iraqi Kurds who are staunch allies. Or it can back Iraq, a sectarian theocratic state acting as a proxy for Iran.

Nytimes.com - By ROD NORDLAND and DAVID ZUCCHINO

ERBIL, Iraq — The world could be excused for thinking that another war was about to break out in Iraq.

Newsweek.com

On September 25, Iraqi Kurdistan held an independence referendum not only in its recognized territory, but also in ethnically-mixed areas of Iraq to which both it and the Iraqi government have laid claims.

Cabinet.gov.krd

Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq - The Kurdistan Regional Government Council of Ministers held a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to discuss the independence referendum held on September 25th.

Lemonde.fr | By Kendal NEZAN *

A people mistreated by history, survivors of massacres, deportations and genocidal campaigns of Saddam Hussein, organizes a referendum to peacefully express its aspirations.

Washingtonpost.com | By Qubad Talabani

Iraqi Kurdistan’s independence referendum is set for Monday. Our allies — the United States, Britain, France and the United Nations — keep calling on us to forgo the referendum and to engage, yet again, in negotiations with Iraq. We are grateful to our friends for their efforts, but the time has come for us to secure our own long-term security, prosperity and stability. The path is not clear, but we know it ends in Kurdistan’s independence — in the best-case scenario, by mutual agreement with Iraq.

Basnews.com

ERBIL — President Emmanuel Macron of France said on Tuesday that his country will not oppose to Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum scheduled for next week.

Nytimes.com

ERBIL, Iraq — The parliament of Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region approved a plan on Friday to hold a referendum on independence on Sept. 25, ignoring opposition from Baghdad and the wider region as well as Western concerns that the vote could spark fresh conflict.

By KEMAL KILICDAROGLUJULY 7, 2017

GEBZE, TURKEY — On June 15, I began walking from Ankara to Istanbul on a 280-mile march for democracy, justice and freedom from fear and authoritarian rule in Turkey. I am the leader of the Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., the main opposition party in the Turkish Parliament. I set out with thousands of supporters from Ankara.