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Turkey wants to delay referendum on
oil-rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk
21.2.2007 |
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February 21, 2007
ANKARA, Turkey, -- Turkey's prime minister on
Tuesday urged one of Iraq's two vice presidents to
delay a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, fearing
Iraqi Kurdish groups could seize control of the
northern, oil-rich city.
Turkey, which has been trying to quell a Kurdish
insurgency for more than two decades, is concerned
about the growing power of Iraqi Kurds and has
repeatedly warned Iraqi Kurdish groups against
trying to seize control of Kirkuk.
Iraq's constitution calls for a referendum on
Kirkuk's future by the end of the year. The Kurds
want to incorporate the city and its rich oilfields
into their self-ruled region - a move the Turks have
strongly opposed.
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told
Iraqi Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi the
normalization of security sought by the Iraqi
constitution has not occurred in Kirkuk and the
referendum must be postponed, the state-run Anatolia
news agency reported.
Turkey fears Iraq's Kurds want Kirkuk's oil revenues
to fund a bid for independence that could encourage
separatist Kurdish guerrillas in Turkey, who have
been fighting for autonomy since 1984. The conflict
has claimed the lives of 37,000 people.
Erdogan also asked Abdul-Mahdi to stop attacks by
separatist Kurdish guerrillas, based in Iraq, on
Turkey.
Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the
Ottoman Empire, has a large minority of ethnic Turks
as well as Christians, Shiite and Sunni Arabs,
Armenians and Assyrians. The city is just south of
the autonomous Kurdish region stretching across
three provinces of northeastern Iraq.
Since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003,
thousands of Kurds pushed out of the region under
Saddam Hussein's rule have returned.
Turkey - a predominantly Muslim country that is an
ally of the U.S. and NATO, a friend of Israel and a
candidate to join the European Union - is pushing to
increase its influence in the Middle East, where it
says it can help negotiate between Islamic countries
and the West.
Turkey has not ruled out military incursions into
Iraq to hunt separatist Kurds, despite warnings from
Washington, which fears that such a move could lead
to tensions with the Iraqi Kurdish groups who have
been important allies of the U.S.
AP
**
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein 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 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, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
Based on Iraq's Constitution 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.
** 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.
Turkey is home to some 20 million ethnic Kurds, some
of whom openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK for a
Kurdish homeland in the country's mainly Kurdish
southeast of 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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