“This morning I called President Masoud Barzani to congratulate him on the Kurdish Referendum. We wished each other great success,” read a tweet on Tuesday by Carles Puigdemont.
The people of Catalonia will hold their own referendum on the issue of seceding from Spain on Sunday, six days after the Kurdistan vote on independence from Iraq.
The Catalan parliament set October 1 for their vote, a move that has been rejected by the Spanish government just as the Kurdistan referendum has been rejected by the Iraqi central government.
Seeking to prevent the vote from proceeding, Spanish authorities have detained officials, raided offices, and seized documents and literature related to the referendum. Tens of thousands have protested the arrests. Leaders have vowed the vote will go ahead.
