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Kurds reject Sunni proposal on Kirkuk
29.8.2008
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August 29, 2008
Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
— Kurdish lawmakers have rejected a provision
submitted by the Sunni Accordance Front to invite
foreign officials to negotiate over the status of
Kirkuk city.
Accordance Front chief Ayad al-Samarrai proposed
inviting the United Nations and representatives from
the international community to enter talks on the
status of the oil-rich city,www.ekurd.net
the Iranian Press TV
said Thursday, citing local Iraqi reports.
The Sunni proposal said Iraqi lawmakers were not
considering the interests of the people of Kirkuk
while negotiating the provision.
This "proposal calls on delegates from the U.N. and
some foreign countries to be involved in talks to
solve the dispute over Kirkuk," a statement from the
Accordance Front said.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan rejected the
proposal,www.ekurd.net
however, saying it was a
matter for the Kurdish people to settle.
Kurdish authorities have shunned several proposals
for Kirkuk, including one that divides authority
among the four main ethnic groups there.
An Iraqi constitutional provision, Article 140,
calls for the reversal of policies enacted by Saddam
Hussein that forcibly displaced the Kurdish
population from the region.
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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
UPI | Agencies
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