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Iraqi deputy PM says Kirkuk is Kurdish
despite bids to undermine Article 140
22.12.2007
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December 22, 2007
Baghdad, -- Kirkuk will remain a Kurdish city
despite all attempts to undermine Article 140 of the
Iraqi constitution pertaining to the city's status,
Iraq's deputy premier said.
"Several bodies oppose the implementation of Article
140," the Kurdish deputy to the Iraqi prime
minister, Barham Saleh, said on Friday in his
opening speech before the Sulaimaniya-based
conference of civil society organizations.www.ekurd.net
"Kirkuk's issue should
be domestically solved," Saleh added.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk, an
important and mixed city of Kurds, Turkmen,
Christians and Arabs. Kurds seek to include the city
in the autonomous Iraq's Kurdistan region, while
Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Shiite Arabs oppose the
incorporation. |
Dr. Barham Saleh Iraq's deputy premier |
The article currently stipulates that all Arabs in
Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in
southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly
displaced residents returned to Kirkuk, 250 km
northeast of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.
A referendum, provided for in the Iraqi
constitution, was scheduled to be held by the end of
the current year on including the city into the
Kurdistan region.
An Iraqi parliament vote in early September extended
the work of the High Committee for Implementation of
Article 140 until the end of 2007, delaying the
referendum on Kirkuk's status that was expected by
the end of 2007.
All parliamentary blocs, except for the Kurdistan
Coalition (KC), call for postponing the
implementation of the contentious
article.
Saleh's statements came after UN Secretary General
Ban Ki-moon's special representative for Iraq,
Staffan de Mistura,www.ekurd.net
proposed an extension of
the mandate of the concerned committee during an
Iraqi parliamentary session last week.
Kirkuk city is a
Kurdish city
and it lies just south border of the Kurdistan
autonomous region, the population is a mix of majority
Kurds and minority of Arabs, Christians and Turkmen.
lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
VOI
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