|
Ethnic tensions increasing in oil-rich
city of Kirkuk 3.11.2006
By Sumedha Senanayake
|
|
|
|
NEW YORK,
November 2, -- As the government committee charged
with reversing the "Arabization" policy pursued in
Kirkuk under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
attempts to complete its constitutionally mandated
task, ethnic tensions have increased as each
community vies for control of the oil-rich northern
city.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution outlines a
three-step process to remove and reverse the
Hussein-era "Arabization" policy in Kirkuk. The
Ba'athist regime took extreme measures in the 1980s
and 1990s to expel Kurds, Turkomans, and Christians
from the city, including the Anfal campaign, and
replacing the indigenous population with Arabs.
Post-Hussein governments have adopted a policy of
"normalizing" Kirkuk through the repatriation of
those displaced from their homes and the relocation
of Arab settlers to nearby areas or to their
traditional homes in the south.
The next 18 months will be crucial for the future of
Kirkuk, as the Kirkuk Normalization Committee will
need to have completed its task and the question of
which region the city should belong to will be
answered by 2007, when a census and referendum will
take place. This should determine whether Kirkuk
will be annexed by the semi-autonomous Kurdish
region in northern Iraq.
Tensions Between Kurds, Turkomans
While members of the committee charged with
implementing Article 140 are meant to be impartial,
tensions have broken out among different ethnic
groups, who accuse the committee of being one-sided.
Many of these accusations have come from
representatives of non-Kurdish groups who believe
that Article 140 only supports Kurdish interests.
Under the pretext of reversing the forced
Arabization campaign, more than 100,000 Kurds have
returned to Kirkuk, thereby altering the city's
demographics in their favor. Indeed, the
implementation of Article 140 would most likely
result in a Kurdish majority and Kirkuk will most
likely be appropriated into the Kurdish autonomous
region.
Jamal Shan, the deputy head of the Iraqi Turkoman
Front (ITC), said on October 2 that the
implementation of Article 140 would be detrimental
to the Turkomans because it would adversely affect
the Turkoman areas, the Kurdish weekly "Hawlati"
reported. The ITC is known to have strong ties to
Turkey and holds three seats in parliament.
"We will act as an obstacle in the way of
implementing Article 140" because it will "endanger
the geography of the Turkoman [territories]," Shan
said.
Conversely, the Kurds were angry when on October 21
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki appointed a
Turkoman to the committee after the Turkomans
complained that Article 140 only served Kurdish
interests, (see "RFE/RL Newsline," October 22,
2006). Qadir Aziz, a representative of Kurdistan
Democratic Party leader Mas'ud Barzani, stressed
that Kurds are the majority in Kirkuk "The decision
was only meant to please the Turkoman Front," he
said.
Turkish, Iranian Apprehensions
Turkey and Iran have voiced opposition to Article
140 and the upcoming referendum concerning Kirkuk,
indicating that both Tehran and Ankara are
well-aware of the current demographic situation in
the city. At the same time, several Iraqi officials
believe Turkey and possibly Iran are behind some of
the recent violence in northern Iraq, especially in
Kirkuk.
Turkey has been quite vocal in its opposition to an
expansion of the Kurdish autonomous region, let
alone an independent Kurdish state. Ankara fears
such a state would become a focal point of
nationalism and separatism within its own Kurdish
population, and oil-rich Kirkuk could be the
foundation of a powerful future Kurdish economy.
In addition, Turkey has consistently backed the
Turkomans, who are ethnic Turks, and their
historical claims to Kirkuk. This raises the
suspicion among Iraq's Kurds that Turkey is
interfering in Iraq's internal affairs by supporting
Turkoman aspirations to counter Kurdish claims to
the city.
Iran, too, has a sizable Kurdish population and
Iranian leaders have indicated they are not
comfortable with an independent Kurdish state, but
prefer a Shi'ite-led central government that they
could influence.
Iran and Turkey have cooperated for months in a
military campaign against Turkish-Kurdish fighters
holed up in the mountainous areas inside Iraqi
territory. On September 5, Iran was accused of
shelling the town of Mandali, deep in Iraqi
territory, in an effort to oust anti-Iranian Kurdish
guerrillas, international media reported.
In response, Iraqi President Jalal Talabani issued a
sharp warning in an interview with U.S. National
Public Radio on September 25, that his government
was prepared to support opposition groups in Iran,
Turkey, and Syria if Iraq's neighbors did not stop
interfering in its internal affairs, (see "RFE/RL
Newsline," September 26, 2006).
"We are asking them [Iraq's neighbors] to stop
interfering in our internal affairs, and especially
the sovereignty and independence of Iraq," he said.
"If the violence doesn't stop, the Iraqi people will
support the opposition of other countries and will
try to make trouble for them as they have done for
us."
Prospects For Kirkuk's Future
September was seen as one of the bloodiest months in
Kirkuk, as the city witnessed an unprecedented surge
in violence. According to the U.S. military, there
have been 20 suicide bombings and 63 roadside bombs
since August. For many, the attacks were seen as a
warning to stop the implementation of Article 140,
as well as an attempt to accentuate the ethnic
tensions within the city. The wave of violence has
increased tensions among the Kurdish, Arab, and
Turkoman populations, and the next 18 months may
witness even more violence as the referendum nears.
The stakes are extremely high. With Kirkuk housing
the second-largest oil fields in Iraq and accounting
for 70 percent of Iraq's natural-gas deposits, the
issue of oil revenues further underscores the
strategic importance of the city.
Kirkuk, in a sense, is a microcosm of Iraq, with its
mixture of ethnic groups and religious sects
jockeying for power. Thus, if the situation in
Kirkuk could be reconciled, it could perhaps be a
model for resolving the divisions and sectarian
strife currently engulfing Iraq as a whole. As an
unnamed Western diplomat told "The Guardian" on
October 28, "If Kirkuk survives, then there is hope
for Iraq."
rferl org
The former Iraqi president forced about 250,000
Kurdish residents to give up their homes to Arabs in
the 1970s,
to "Arabize" the city and the region's oil industry.
Kirkuk city is not under the full control of
Kurdistan Regional Government administration. A
referendum is to be held in late 2007 to decide
whether the oil-rich Kurdish province should be
annexed to the safe semiautonomous Kurdistan region
in Iraq's north.
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 