ERBIL — The Turkmen block in Kurdistan Region Parliament has reiterated its support for holding a referendum on Kurdish independence, saying that they should not wait for the international community to grant them with this “natural right”.

Mona Qahwachi, the Head of the Turkmen Development bloc in the Kurdistan Region Parliament, told BasNews that Turkmens have always supported the Kurdish independent referendum as a legal and natural right of the people in the region.

She argued that the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, independently form Baghdad and without receiving any support form the central government, have been effectively fighting the Islamic State (IS), and they could liberate swathes of areas the Iraqi army previously lost to the jihadists.

The Turkmen MP insists that holding a referendum on Kurdish independence requires a multilateral effort inside Kurdistan Region. “We should not await for the international community to provide us the ground for an independent state,” she stated.

Qahwachi finally called upon Kurdistan Region President Masoud Barzani to officially and urgently introduce his project for holding the referendum, stressing out that the independence is the objective of everyone living in Kurdistan Region.

Earlier in February of this year, Barzani asked the Kurdish political parties and parliament to work on holding a Kurdish independence referendum before the end of 2016.