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Kurdish leader Barzani urges Kurds to back
Iraq charter
29.8.2005
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ARBIL, Iraq, Aug 29 (AFP) - 17h43 - Massud
Barzani, president of northern Iraq's
semi-autonomous Kurdish zone, Monday urged his
region to vote in favour of the constitution, after
returning to Arbil from exhaustive negotiations in
Baghdad.
"I call on all Kurdish people to vote 'yes' at the
referendum on the constitution" scheduled for
October 15, Barzani told reporters, praising the
text as "a solid base to build a democratic,
federal, and pluralistic Iraq."
"I can't say that the text is up to all the
aspirations of the people of Kurdistan, but it is a
compromise between our people and those in the rest
of Iraq," Barzani said. |
President of Kurdistan
Region
Government Massoud Barzani |
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"I want to reassure the people of Kurdistan by
telling them the text will bring them progress and
prosperity," he added, saying the final draft
presented to parliament in Baghdad on Sunday was
better than Iraq's current interim law.
Concerning the Sunni Arabs, whose negotiators
strongly opposed the text, Barzani said that "nobody
knows whether they represent all the Sunni Arabs or
not".
"If they represent the majority of Sunni Arabs, the
referendum will reflect that," Barzani said.
Even before the drawing up of the final document
after weeks of negotiations in which Barzani took
part, the Kurdish regional parliament approved the
draft at the request of the elected executive
president of the region.
Iraq's Kurdish-controlled zone is made up of three
provinces: Arbil, Sulaimaniyah and Dohuk
AFP
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