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President Massoud Barzani says Kurdistan
will take up arms against violations
18.2.2008
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February 18, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan Region 'Iraq',-- Iraqi
Kurdistan region president Massoud Barzani loomed
over that the region will take up arms against
foreign interferences mainly Turkish violations if
attacks on border Kurdish villages continue and
interferences keep rising regarding the
implementation of article 140.
Kurdish officials have held multinational forces
responsible for continuous Turkish shelling.
In a related issue, representatives of Arab and
Turkmen have withdrawn from the normalization
committee in Kirkuk Province in protest to the
constitutional and legal invalidity of the
committee.
Article 140 provides for normalization of Kirkuk
through having back its Kurdish and Turcoman
inhabitants and repatriating the Arabs relocated in
the city during the former regime's time to their
original provinces in central and southern Iraq. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Regional
Government of Kurdistan 'Iraq' |
The article also calls for conducting a census to be
followed by a referendum to let the inhabitants
decide whether they would like Kirkuk to be annexed
to the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region or having
it as an independent province.
Analysts believe the Turkish raids inside Iraqi
Kurdistan region had a secondary purpose of
discouraging a quick referendum on Kirkuk city.
Ankara fears that if the oil-rich Kirkuk joins
Kurdistan, the Kurds will have the economic
foundation they need for an independent state.
Kirkuk city is historically 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,www.ekurd.net
Christians and
Turkmen. lies 250 km northeast of Baghdad. Kurds
have a strong cultural and emotional attachment to Kirkuk, which they call "the Kurdish Jerusalem.", Kirkuk is historically a Kurdish city.
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.
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.
Under article 140 of Iraq’s constitution a
referendum must be held on whether the city secedes
to control of the Kurdistan region al government KRG.
A referendum, provided for in the Iraqi
constitution, was scheduled to be held by the end of
the past year on including the city into the
Kurdistan region,www.ekurd.net
but the UN mediated to
extend its time to July 2008.
Some information for this report was provided by
Alsumaria com | VOI | Agencies
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