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Turkmen party calls for considering Kurdish Peshmerga
forces as 'militia'
15.4.2008
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April
15, 2008
BAGHDAD, -- The head of a Turkmen party
called on Monday on the Iraqi government to consider
the Kurdish Peshmerga forces as 'militia' and
prevent the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
headed by Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and the
Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) leaded by Kurdistan
region President Massoud Barzani, from taking part
in the municipal elections in oil-rich Kurdish city
of Kirkuk and Mosul as long as their militias exist
in the two cities.
“We urge the government to consider the militias of
the two main Kurdish parties in Mosul and Kirkuk as
irregular and illegal forces,” Riyadh Sari Kehya,www.ekurd.net
the head of the Turcoman
party, told VOI.
“In case the government insists on the presence of
Peshmerga forces in the two cities, we demand the
two parties be prevented from participating in the
elections,” he added.
Peshmerga are the forces belonging to the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan under President Jalal Talabani
and the Kurdish Democratic Party under Kurdistan
region President Massoud Barzani.
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, 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.".
The article 140 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.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months.
The former regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
had 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.
Kurds seek to include the city in the autonomous
Iraq's Kurdistan region, while Sunni Muslims,
Turkmen and Shiites oppose the incorporation. 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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI,
Agencies
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