Lahur Talabani says Kurdistan Parliament should reactivated before referendum.

SULAIMANI, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— The Director of Iraqi Kurdistan Region’s Protection and Information Agency in the PUK party-controlled areas, Lahur Jangi Talabani, said the Kurdistan Parliament should be reactivated without preconditions before holding the referendum on the independence of Kurdistan.

“How can I believe independence will be announced while the return and non-return of parliament’s speaker have created a problem,” Talabani said as he spoke to Peshmerga forces of the 17th Brigade during a meeting on Thursday.

Talabani added the steps toward the referendum will fail if Kurdish authorities do not prepare for it and he noted the political, military, economic, diplomatic and social principles of which a state should be prepared before holding the referendum in the region.

How can independence be announced when half of the Kurdistan Region’s soil is under the control of Turkey? Turkey has come up to Soran [district],” Talabani said.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Politburo has also reaffirmed during a meeting on Thursday that the Kurdistan Parliament should be reactivated and a law must be issued for the referendum.

Massoud Barzani has closed the Kurdish parliament in October 2015 after his term as president of Kurdistan has expired in August 2015. Barzani refused to step down and remains unofficially in office. According to the law, Barzani cannot run for presidency anymore.

The Kurdistan Region’s political parties, not including the second biggest party of Change (Gorran) Movement and the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG), came to an agreement on June 7 to hold a referendum on the region’s independence on September 25, 2017.

The decision was slammed by Iraq, US, UK, EU, Russia, Germany, Turkey and Iran.

Officials from Gorran, the Kurdistan Islamic Group (KIG) and Kurdistan Islamic Union KIU said both elections and the referendum should be held together or the referendum should be postponed and referendum needs the reactivation of Iraq’s Kurdistan Parliament without preconditions.

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