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Kurdistan Parliament responds with
'Turkey' session
24.1.2007 |
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January
24, 2007
ANKARA - In response to the Turkish
Parliament's decision to call an extraordinary
meeting to discuss neighboring Iraq, the local
Kurdistan Parliament in Kurdistan (northern Iraq)
yesterday called for an emergency “Turkey” session,
reported the Doğan News Agency (DHA).
Adnan Mufti, speaker of the local Parliament in
Erbil, summoned all the members of the Parliament
for an extraordinary session scheduled for today in
order to discuss Turkish policies on Iraq. The DHA
reported that Mufti said the alleged Turkish threats
with regard to the status of oil-rich northern Iraqi
city of Kirkuk would be discussed.
The Kurdish Parliament's call followed the Turkish
Parliament's decision to host a secret Iraq session,
which was expected to start at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.
Turkish deputies were expected to address mounting
violence in Iraq, terrorism and the status of Kirkuk.
No press statement was made with regard to the
closed session in Parliament, which would be kept as
a state secret, with the minutes of the secret
session to remain classified for the next 10 years.
Worried by Iraqi Kurds' attempts to control Kirkuk
as part of their push for an independent state on
its border, Turkey has repeatedly urged
power-sharing among ethnic groups in the city and
wanted a delay in the referendum planned in the city
this year. Iraq's Constitution calls for census and
referendum in Kirkuk by the end of 2007.
In the meantime, Massoud Barzani, President of the
Kurdistan autonomous administration in northern
Iraq, repeated that Kirkuk was a Kurdish city and
that it would be a symbol of friendship between
Arabs, Turkmens and Kurds.
He also accused Turkey of pursuing aggressive
policies on Kirkuk in recent days and said: “This
stance has no importance to us. They are a part of
an election propaganda targeting domestic politics.
These policies are not acceptable. We don't take
Turkey's attitude seriously.”
turkishdailynews com.tr
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The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced more than 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 a Kurdistani city and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region and it 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.
Southeastern Turkey:
North Kurdistan (
Kurdistan-Turkey) wikipedia
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