The Turkish Security Council recommended in an October 16 statement to close the country's airspace for Iraqi Kurdistan amid the ongoing clashes between Iraqi federal forces and Peshmerga fighters in Kirkuk, which joined Kurdistan's independence referendum on September 25, Milliyet reported quoting Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag.

Ankara also suspended flights to Iraqi Kurdistan and halted the broadcasting of a number of the autonomous region's television channels in the country.

"It has been considered necessary to recommend closure of Turkey's airspace for northern Iraq. The control over the Ibrahim Halil border checkpoint should be handed over to the Iraqi government," the council's press service said in an October 16 statement.