ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey has warned Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region that "there will most certainly be a price to pay" for its insistence on holding an independence referendum later this month.

A Foreign Ministry statement released Thursday also welcomed an Iraqi parliament vote that rejected the Sept. 25 referendum as unconstitutional.

The statement said: "The (Kurdish region) should be aware that there will most certainly be a price to pay for insisting on its approach for a referendum despite all our friendly recommendations." The statement did not elaborate.

It described the Iraqi Kurdish leadership's "increasingly emotional statements" in favor of independence as "alarming."

Turkey, which has a large Kurdish population and is battling Kurdish insurgents, has forged close ties to Iraq's autonomous region but opposes an independent Kurdish state.