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‘Election results will not change much if
Turkmens do not participate but this would lead to
unease,’ says Talabani
ANKARA – Turkish Daily News
A leader of an Iraqi Kurdish party has warned
against a possible decision of Turkmens not to
participate in the upcoming parliamentary elections
in Iraq.
“Non-participation of Turkmens would lead to
unease,” Jalal Talabani, who heads the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), said after consultations
with Massoud Barzani, leader of the Iraqi Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP) ahead of the Jan. 30
elections, according to CNN Türk television.
Talabani said, however, that election results would
not change significantly even if the Turkmens did
not participate.
Iraqi Turkmens, who share close ethnic ties with
Turkey, warned last week that they would be forced
to revise their decision to participate in Iraqi
elections if election rules are further changed in
line with Kurdish demands.
They were referring, in particular, to migration of
more than 100,000 Kurds to the oil-rich city of
Kirkuk, whose control is disputed among Turkmens,
Kurds and Arabs and Iraqi government moves to allow
the majority of the returning Kurds to vote in
elections.
Talabani said a commission would be set up to
oversee return of Kurds, who he said were forcefully
expelled from Kirkuk, to their former homes in the
city and sending Arabs, who were settled by the
Saddam Hussein administration in Kirkuk, back to
their former
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr
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