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Turkish delegation warns Kurds over Kirkuk
ambitions 27.9.2006
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Kirkuk,
Kurdistan-Iraq, September 26,-- Turkish lawmakers
visiting the Iraqi Kurdish city of Kirkuk on Tuesday
expressed support for the country's Turkmen
minority, warning the dominant Kurds about their
designs on the oil-rich city.
The delegation played down fears that Turkey might
intervene in its troubled southern neighbour,
affirming its support for Iraq's territorial
integrity, but also affirmed Turkey's right to play
a leading role in the country.
Turhan Comez of the ruling Justice and Development
Party and Orhan Zia Diran of the Republican People's
Party met with Kirkuk's governor and later the
speaker of the provincial council, both Kurds.
"Turkey is keen to preserve the territorial
integrity of Iraq, but it is our right as a
neighboring state to have a presence in Iraq just as
the Americans have a presence," said Comez at a
press conference.
The two deputies said they were touring cities in
Iraq with large populations of Turkmen -- an ethnic
group with historical and linguistic ties to Turkey
-- including Tall Afar, Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu.
Under Article 140 of Iraq's year-old constitution,
there are plans for a census and then a referendum
in Kirkuk province to decide whether it will join
northern Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region.
The city of Kirkuk is nearly 50 percent Kurdish and
they dominate the province's political life, as well
as controlling the police and military.
"Only the people of Kirkuk can decide the future of
its city," said Comez. "But anything that might hurt
Kirkuk within the constitution, we will stand
against it."
Turkey has described itself as the guardian of the
ethnic Turkmen people in Iraq, and especially Kirkuk,
where Arab and Turkmen populations have expressed
worry over Kurdish designs on the city and its oil
fields.
During the Turks' visit to Kirkuk Provisional
Council speaker Rizkar Ali, a hardline member of the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, they were shown his
framed collection of ancient maps showing Kirkuk as
part of Kurdistan.
"It's up to the people to decide the fate of Kirkuk,
not the maps," said Comez.
Fighters from the separatist Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK) are also based in northern Iraq from
where they carry out an armed campaign against
Ankara but have also recently made peace overtures.
Ankara has threatened a cross-border operation into
northern Iraq to pursue the PKK if Baghdad and
Washington fail to curb the rebels.
AFP
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 in 2007 will decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
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