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Iraq's VP calls on Kurdistan president to
attend meeting over army deployment in Khanaqin
29.8.2008
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August 29, 2008
BAGHDAD, — Iraq’s Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi
on Thursday called on Kurdistan region's president
Massoud Barzani to join an urgent meeting to discuss
deployment of Iraqi army in Diyala’s disputed town.
"Al-Hashemi today conferred in a phone call with
Barzani the current circumstances in Diyala
province,www.ekurd.net
and the constitutional
ground for the Iraqi armed forces to be present in
Khanaqin suburb (155 km northeast of Baaquba city),"
said the vice president office statement received by
VOI.
"Al-Hashemi and Barzani discussed the political ways
to defuse a dangerous crisis foreboding on the
horizon," it added.
VP Al-Hashemi called on Barzani to join an urgent
meeting of political leaders to discuss Khanaqin's
issue in Baghdad.
Kurdish forces refused Iraqi defense ministry orders
to pull out of Kurdish-populated areas of ethnically
divided Diyala province where they have been
deployed for the past two years. But then conceded
Iraqi army deployment in some areas of the disputed
town of Khanaqin. |
Massoud Barzani, the President of the autonomous Region of Kurdistan
(L). Iraq’s Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi |
The deployment of Iraqi
troops in Khanaqin unleashed strong protest of
Kurdish official, considering the measures as
provocative and a political tool to influence Kurd's
stances in controversial provincial polls law.
On Wednesday, the president of Iraq's Kurdistan
region, Massoud Barzani, expressed his surprise at
the raid conducted by Iraqi army personnel on
Khanaqin district, which he described as a "safe"
area.
The remark was made on during his reception of a
high-ranking delegation from the U.S. embassy,
according to a statement released by the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG).
"Khanaqin
is a safe area and it's a wonder that
the Iraqi army entered it under the pretext of
combating terrorism," Barzani said.
The Kurdish president wondered why the Iraqi army
did not coordinate with the regional government.
Following an agreement between Kurdish authorities
and the central government in Baghdad,www.ekurd.net
Peshmerga forces
withdrew from the districts of Qurtuba and Jalawlaa,
which are affiliated with Khanaqin.
Peshmerga is a term used by the Kurds to refer to
armed Kurdish forces.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is enacted by
the Iraqi parliament to put an end to the
controversy over disputed areas, including Kirkuk
and Khanaqin.
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 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.
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.
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.
Baaquba, the capital city of Diyala province, lies
57 km northeast of Baghdad.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI |
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