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Iraqi Kurdistan president warns of 'civil
war' over oil-rich city of Kirkuk
1.8.2007 |
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August 1, 2007
BAGHDAD,--- The president of Iraq's Kurdistan
region warned Tuesday of a "real civil war" if the
central government does not implement a
constitutional clause on the future of Kirkuk, the
oil-rich city claimed by the Kurds.
Control over Kirkuk and the surrounding oil wealth
is in dispute among the city's Kurdish, Arab and
ethnic Turkish populations. Nationally, the dispute
pits the Kurds, who want to annex it to their
autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq,
against the country's Arab majority and its small
minority of Turks, known locally as Turkomen.
Massoud Barzani, president of Kurdistan region,
speaking in an interview with U.S.-funded Alhurra
television, complained that the Baghdad government
was dragging its feet on holding a referendum that
could put Kirkuk under control of the autonomous
Kurdistan region in northern Iraq. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
"There is procrastination (by the government) and if
this issue is not resolved, as I said before, all
options are open. ...
Frankly I am not comfortable with the behavior and
the policy of the federal government on Kirkuk and
clause 140," he said.
'A real civil war'
The constitutional clause calls for a referendum in
Kirkuk to decide its future status by the end of the
year. Before the vote, the clause says Kurds
expelled from the city during Saddam Hussein's rule
must be allowed to return. A census would then be
held to determine which ethnic group was a majority
of the population.
Tens of thousands of Kurds have returned to the city
since Saddam's ouster in 2003, but a census has not
been conducted.
"The Kurds will never relinquish or bargain over
Kirkuk, but we accepted to regain Kirkuk through
constitutional and legal methods. But if we despair
of those constitutional and legal methods, then we
will have the right to resort to other means,"
Barzani warned.
"If clause 140 is not implemented, then there will
be a real civil war," Barzani said, promising to
visit Baghdad shortly to discuss the matter with the
central government.
Barzani's warning was certain to deepen the
political instability and further weaken Nouri al-Maliki,
the embattled Shiite prime minister who already is
fighting for his government's survival.
He is under severe pressure from Washington to take
concrete steps to help reconcile Iraq's Shiites,
Sunni Arabs and Kurds.
Contested city
A blueprint for Kirkuk's future was laid out in
Iraq's 2005 constitution, but the city is widely
viewed as a time bomb that could plunge Iraq deeper
into crisis and violence.
Barzani accused unidentified countries of trying to
delay a resolution of the Kirkuk issue and urged the
Baghdad government not to succumb to regional
pressures. It was clear he was referring to Turkey,
where separatist Kurdish PKK guerrillas are fighting
government forces in the mainly Kurdish southeast of
Turkey. Al-Maliki is due to
visit Turkey in
early August.
Ankara fears that if the oil-rich Kirkuk joins
Kurdistan, the Kurds will have the economic
foundation they need for an independent state.
Ankara is anxious to prevent the emergence of a
Kurdish state in Kurdistan region (northern Iraq),
fearing this could fan separatism among its own
large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using a Kurdish
separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to invade
Kurdistan region (Iraq) to prevent the establishment
of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish autonomous region
in (northern Iraq).
Adnan al-Mufti, the speaker of the Kurdish
parliament, also criticized the central government's
handling of the Kirkuk issue, saying it was partly
to blame for missing a July 31 deadline to produce
lists of eligible voters in the city and its
surrounding districts.
The lists were to be compiled by a Baghdad-based
government commission that includes Arabs, Kurds and
Turkomen officials.
"It is not completely the fault of the federal
government because we do understand that the
deteriorating security situation in Kirkuk has
played a role in this delay," al-Mufti said.
"The census issue is only part of the article and
failing to carry it on time does not mean a total
failure. We should work hard and fast with the
federal government because we have limited time," he
said from Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
'A legitimate right'
Barzani told the television interviewer that Kurdish
nationhood was a "reality" rather than a dream. A
Kurdish homeland, he said, was a "natural right for
a nation of more than 50 million people in the
Middle East. Why should we be denied this right?"
He ruled out, however, the use of violence to
establish a Kurdish homeland, a prospect that
worries Iran, Turkey and Syria because it would set
a dangerous precedent for their own restive Kurdish
minorities.
"It's a legitimate right but it must be realized at
the suitable time," Barzani said of establishing a
Kurdish nation.
AP
**
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.
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.
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.
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