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No response from Iraqi government on
annexing Kirkuk to Kurdistan
23.8.2008
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August 23, 2008
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
The Kirkuk provincial council has not received any
response from the federal government in Baghdad and
the government of Kurdistan on the demands made by
al-Taakhi List to annex Kirkuk into Kurdistan, the
deputy head of the Kirkuk provincial council said on
Friday.
“Our
demand to annex Kirkuk
into Kurdistan has not been responded yet by Iraqi
and Kurdish governments as well as the parliament,”
Rebwar Talabani told VOI.
“In case the demand is rejected, we will boycott all
Iraqi ministries,” he added.
Article 24 of the provincial council elections
stipulates the postponement of the elections in
Kirkuk and to share the power between the main
components; 32 for Arabs,www.ekurd.net
Kurds and Turcomans and
4 percent for Christians, in addition to military
units from central and southern Iraq instead of the
military troops working now in the oil-rich
province.
Three week ago, 24 Kurdish members of Kirkuk’s local
council requested annexing Kirkuk to Kurdistan’s
region amid staunch opposition from Arab and Turkmen
members.
The Iraqi president emphasized the importance of
"reaching accordance among Kirkuk’s ethnicities in
tandem with his quest to strike a deal among Iraq’s
denominations."
Iraq's Parliament
passed the provincial election
bill three weeks ago,www.ekurd.net
but a walkout by Kurdish
lawmakers over how to deal with the disputed oil
city of Kirkuk unleashed heated debate about it.
The Presidential Board appealed it, citing violation
of the national reconciliation and upsetting the
quota for women as reasons. The law is meant to pave
the way for polls seen as vital to reconciling
Iraq's factions, who boycotted the last provincial
elections in 2005, with its other communities.
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."
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas.
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.
Kirkuk, sits on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old
settlement. Because of the strategic geographical
location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground
for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia and Media
which controlled the city at various times.
Kirkuk is the center of the northern Iraqi petroleum
industry. It is a historically and ethnically mixed
city populated by Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Iraqi
Turkmen. The population was estimated at 1,200,000
in 2008.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, VOI |
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