ANKARA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkey's flag carrier Turkish Airlines said Wednesday that it has no plan to suspend flights to the Kurdish region in northern Iraq.
"All our scheduled passenger flights to Erbil and Sulaymaniyah will be carried out as planned," the airline said in a written statement.
On the same day, the Iraqi Civil Aviation Authority requested foreign airlines suspend flights to the area controlled by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) by Friday.
The move came amid rising tensions between Baghdad and the Kurdish region over the independence referendum held Monday in the KRG-controlled areas in northern Iraq.
The Turkish government has voiced strong opposition to the referendum, while warning of taking countermeasures against the KRG if it seeks independence.
Ankara fears that the Iraqi Kurdish independence would inspire the separatist Kurdish movement in its homeland, with which it has been fighting in the past decades.
Lebanon and Iran have announced that they would halt flights to and from Erbil airport in northern Iraq from Friday.
