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Turkey warns Kirkuk referendum may fuel
more turmoil in Iraq 23.11.2006
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ISTANBUL,
November 23,-- - Turkish President Ahmet Necdet
Sezer has warned that a planned referendum over the
future of Iraq's ethnically disputed oil-rich
Kurdish city of Kirkuk could fuel more turmoil in
the country because the Kurds have upset Kirkuk's
demographics.
"Because of the population that has been shifted to
Kirkuk, the referendum foreseen under constitutional
provisions for the end of 2007 will create
controversy and render the problem even more
difficult," Sezer said
Thursday.
"We believe the status of Kirkuk should be
determined not by a forced referendum but through a
formula which all Iraqi groups will agree to without
the pressure of a deadline," he said.
Sezer was speaking at an economic cooperation
meeting here of countries from the Organization of
the Islamic Conference (OIC). |
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer
Photo:AFP |
Ankara accuses Iraqi Kurds of having moved thousands
of their people to Kirkuk and its environs since the
US-led liberation of Iraq in 2003 in a bid to change
its demographic structure in their favor ahead of
the referendum.
Iraqi Kurdish leaders want to incorporate the city
and its rich oil fields into their autonomous region
in the north -- a move seen here as a part of
Kurdish designs to break away from Baghdad.
An independent Kurdish state, Ankara fears, would
fuel separatism among its own restive Kurds in
neighboring southeast Turkey, sparking regional
turmoil.
Kirkuk also has sizeable Arab and Turkmen
communities, the latter of Turkish descent and
backed by Ankara, who oppose the city's shift to the
Kurdish region.
Kirkuk has been hit in recent months by a series of
deadly explosions blamed on Sunni Arab extremists
who oppose Kurdish claims on the city, as well as
Iraq's embattled US-backed government.
Earlier Kurdistan region PM
Nechirvan Barzani
issued a statement criticizing the progress of
the committee formed to implement article 140 of the
constitution pertaining to the families expelled
from their homes in Kirkuk and other disputed territories under the
former regime.
In the statement Barzani noted that "The panel that
has been formed for the execution of article 140 of
the permanent Iraqi constitution? it is not
progressing perfectly.
In regards to objections raised by Iraqi's neighbors
against the implementation of the article, Barzani
said, "This is a constitutional article and only
relates to the Iraqi people.
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.
Source: AFP
The use of the term "Kurdistan" is vigorously
rejected due to its alleged political implications
by the Republic of Turkey, which does not recognize
the existence of a "Turkish Kurdistan"
Southeast Turkey.
Others estimate as many as 40 million Kurds live in
Big Kurdistan (Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Armenia),
which covers an area as big as France, about half of
all Kurds which estimate to 20 million live in
Turkey.
The Kurdish flag flown officially in Iraqi Kurdistan but
unofficially flown by Kurds in Armenia. The flag is
banned in Iran, Syria, and Turkey where flying it is
a criminal offence"
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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