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Iraqi Kurdistan president demands control
of oil-rich Kirkuk
29.10.2009 |
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October 29, 2009
ERBIL-Hewlêr,
Kurdistan region 'Iraq', — The
president of Iraq's Kurdistan region demanded
Wednesday that oil-rich Kirkuk be incorporated into
his autonomous area, as parliament prepared for a
showdown on the contentious issue of which of the
northern city's residents can vote in upcoming
elections.
Massoud Barzani's comments ratcheted up the pressure
on the eve of a vote on the electoral law that will
lay the groundwork for January's key parliamentary
ballot. Lawmakers are split over amendments on which
voting list will be used in Kirkuk—one favoring
Kurds or one favoring Arabs.
The city has large populations of Arabs and ethnic
Turkmens who resent the Kurds' aggressive efforts to
take over the city. The Kurds see Kirkuk as
historically theirs and describe it as their
"Jerusalem."
Next to Sunni-Shiite tensions in Iraq, the issue of
Kirkuk and Kurdish-Arab tensions has become a key
flashpoint in this fragile nation. A political
deadlock now could delay the elections and open the
way for new violence and instability.
"We will not accept any (other) solution for
Kirkuk," said Barzani, speaking in Erbil, the
capital of Kurdistan region,www.ekurd.netWednesday
after a new Kurdish regional government was sworn
in. "We want it to be annexed to our region because
the majority of its population are Kurds."
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Kurdistan regional President Massoud Barzani, left,
talks with newly elected Prime Minister of the
Kurdish region Government of Iraq Barham Salih prior
the swearing in ceremony of the new Kurdistan
regional government (KRG) in Erbil, Wednesday, Oct.
28, 2009. Barzani demanded Wednesday the oil-rich
city of Kirkuk be part of the northern autonomous
Kurdistan area, as Iraq's parliament prepares for a
showdown on the highly contentious issue of which
Kirkuk residents can vote in January's crucial
national elections. (AP Photo) |
During the Saddam era, tens of thousands of Kurds
were displaced under a forced plan to make Kirkuk
predominantly Arab. Since the 2003 U.S.-led
liberation of Iraq, many of these Kurds have
returned. Now other groups
claim there are more Kurds than before—which could
sway the vote in their favor and bring Kirkuk and
its oil fully under Kurdish control.
Arabs favor a plan that would use the 2004 voter
registry, likely meaning Arab voters would be much
more represented than Kurds. The Kurds favor a
proposal by the United Nations that would use voter
records from 2009, but only for a four-year period
till the Kirkuk issue can be further clarified.
The 2004 proposal being put forward Thursday does
contain some concessions to the Kurds, said Omar al-Jibouri,
a Sunni Arab lawmaker. It would allow an additional
50,000 Kurdish families—who've been approved by a
special committee as being residents of Kirkuk
pushed out by Saddam—to vote.
"The parliament must be decisive in its decisions,
and ... not bow to pressure," said al-Jibouri. "We
hope tomorrow you see a strong parliament that can
take and make decisions, and be brave in its
decisions."
Those concessions seemed to hold little sway with
Kurdish politicians, some of whom threatened to not
even attend the vote if the 2004 option is on the
table. Lawmaker Mahmoud Othman said Kurdish
legislators warned the parliament speaker not to put
the issue up for a vote.
If the proposal based on the 2004 list passes,
Othman said Iraqi President Jalal Talabani—who's
Kurdish—will veto it, a sign of the heavy pressure
Talabani is under to align himself with his Kurdish
brethren.
At least 138 of Iraq's 275 lawmakers must attend in
order for the vote to go forward. A simple majority
would pass the matter but it can then be vetoed by
the president. Lawmakers would need 183 votes to
override his veto, something that Othman said could
trigger an even bigger fallout.
"If the law is passed, then we will boycott the
entire elections," Othman said.
The Kurds were granted international permission to
rule Iraq's three northern provinces independently
from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf war. Since the 2003
U.S.-led liberation of Iraq, the Kurds have become a
key group in the Baghdad-based central government.
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,www.ekurd.net
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." Kurds see it as the rightful and
perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state.
"Kirkuk
is Kurdish, and
a Kurdistani city
like Erbil, Sulaimaniyah
or Duhok, and is part of Kurdistan," Iraqi
Kurdistan region
president Massoud Barzani said on July 14. "All of
the historical and geographical documents prove
this."
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.
The last ethnic-breakdown census in Iraq was
conducted in 1957, well before Saddam began his
program to move Arabs to Kirkuk. That count showed
178,000 Kurds, 48,000 Turkomen, 43,000 Arabs and
10,000 Assyrian-Chaldean Christians living in the
city.
Copyright, respective
author or news agency,
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