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Kurdistan president says willing to raise
the Iraqi flag with new interpretations
14.1.2008
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January 14, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq', --
Iraq's Kurdistan President Massoud Barazani said
that his government is willing to raise the current
Iraqi flag as long as a new interpretation of its
meaning is offered to represent post-Saddam Iraq.
"Kurds are always ready to raise the Iraqi flag as
long as a new interpretation or change is provided
to represent new Iraq. I have not been acquainted
with the change that has been made to the flag thus
far, but the old flag did not represent Iraq, but
the Baath (Party),"www.ekurd.net
Barzani said in a joint
press conference with Italian Deputy Foreign
Minister Gianni Vernetti in Erbil city on Sunday.
On Saturday, the Iraqi parliament discussed a
proposal to make changes to the current Iraqi flag
in response to strong protests from Kurdish leaders
who argue that the flag symbolizes the former Iraqi
regime. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
The color of the phrase 'Allah Akbar' (God is
Greater), written on the center of the flag, has
been changed from green to yellow and the meaning of
the three green stars was changed from their
representations of the three tenets of the Baath
party motto: unity, freedom and socialism, to peace,
tolerance and justice.
In September 2006, the Kurdistan Regional Government
(KRG)
banned the raising of the
national Iraqi flag beside the Kurdish flag
on state-run buildings, raising tensions on the
Iraqi domestic political scene. Barzani urged the
central government in Baghdad to speed up changing
the Iraqi flag ahead of the Arab parliamentarians'
conference in Erbil,www.ekurd.net
scheduled for February
2008, affirming that the Kurds "will never raise the
current flag because it still carries the three
stars symbolizing the (former) Baath Party."
VOI
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