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Kirkuk council members demand to annex
Kirkuk to Kurdistan region
31.7.2008
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July
31, 2008
Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
— Kurdish councillors called on Thursday for the
disputed Iraqi Kurdish city of Kirkuk to become part
of the Kurdistan region, a move that could stoke
tensions with the city's Arab and ethnic Turkmen
communities.
The call was made at a provincial council session
boycotted by Arab and Turkmen members. It followed
several days of street protests by Kurds against a
local election law that would delay voting in the
oil-rich northern city in future local polls.
Kurds regard Kirkuk, which lies just outside the
largely autonomous region of Kurdistan, as their
ancient capital. Arabs and ethnic Turkmen want
Kirkuk to stay under central government authority.
"The Kurdish list put forward a request that Kirkuk
be included in Kurdistan," said Mohammed Kamal, a
Kurdish member of Kirkuk's provincial council.
"We presented today a request signed by 24 members
out of the 41 members, demanding to annex Kirkuk to Iraq' Kurdistan region as its a
constitutional right to be submitted to the Iraqi
parliament," MP Mohamed Kamal told VOI.
He also highlighted the necessity of political
blocs' agreement on the provincial council elections
law.
The call was for both the city and surrounding
province, which some also call Kirkuk, to join
Kurdistan.
Arab and Turkmen councillors reacted angrily.
"We completely reject Kirkuk becoming a part of
Kurdistan and consider this the beginning of a
crisis and strife in the city. It could lead to
civil war in Kirkuk," said Mohammed al-Jubouri, an
Arab member of the provincial council.
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 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.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months to end in July 2008.
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.
BOYCOTT
Kurds hold more than half the seats on the council.
But the head of the council, a Kurd, acknowledged
that the absence of the other two main factions made
the call unconstitutional.
Some factions boycotted the last local elections in
Iraq in January 2005, giving Kurds an edge on the
council.
Kurds are among Iraq's largest minority groups.
A provincial elections law that would allow for
fresh local polls later this year or early 2009 has
been stalled because of a dispute over what to do
about voting in Kirkuk.
Kurdish lawmakers last week walked out of a
parliamentary session in Baghdad that passed the
local election law. President Jalal Talabani, a
Kurd, then rejected it as unconstitutional given a
faction of parliament boycotted the vote.
The law would have delayed voting in Kirkuk,
assigned fixed seat allocations to each ethnic group
and replaced Kurdish Peshmerga security forces in
the city with troops from other parts of Iraq, all
measures Kurdish parliamentarians rejected.
Arabs and Turkmen believe Kirkuk has been
intentionally stacked with Kurds in an attempt to
tip the demographic balance in their favour in any
ballot.
Iraq's presidency council must ratify any new
legislation.
The elections law has since been handed back to
parliament. Lawmakers will hold a special session on
Sunday to try to resolve their differences after
parliament broke for its summer recess on Wednesday.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, Reuters
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