|
Arabs fear Kurdish control in Kirkuk after
US pullout
30.6.2009
|
|
|
June
30, 2009
KIRKUK, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
— The Arabs and Turkmen of Kirkuk fear the Kurds
will seize control of the northern oil hub after the
US pullout from Iraqi urban areas unless their power
in the security services is curbed.
"The Arabs of Kirkuk fear that the province's
security services who work for political parties
will take control of the city after American forces
withdraw," said Mohammad Khalil al-Juburi, head of
the city's "Arab Bloc."
He was referring to the 8,000 "asayish," or security
personnel, who are linked to the main Kurdish
parties and dominant in several districts of the
city of 550,000 residents.
|
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. |
"Even if the situation
is stable today from the point of view of security,
there is no equitable participation (by the
different Kirkuk communities) in this sector, and
that's what worries us," Juburi told AFP.
He said that Arab residents wanted the US military,
before its pullout due to be completed on Tuesday,
to cut back the Kurdish participation and allow for
a fairer shareout of responsibility for security
duties.
Rich in black gold, the Kirkuk province of some
900,000 people is a microcosm of Iraq's problems.
It has several communities vying for power: the
Kurds who want to attach Kirkuk to Iraqi Kurdistan,www.ekurd.net
the Turkmen with
historical claims to the area, Christians and Arabs,
many of whom were settled in the province under
ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's policy of
Arabisation.
On June 24, Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region
approved a new constitution in which it formally
laid claim to Kirkuk province.
The province's Turkmen advisor, Turkan Shukur Ayoub,
wants the Iraqi government "to reinforce the army in
Kirkuk after the US pullout because the police is
weak and lacks equipment".
"We hope they will listen and send extra troops," he
said.
According to the security services, Kirkuk has
11,500 policemen, with 35 percent of them Arabs, the
same percentage Kurds, 28 percent Turkmen, and the
remainder Christians.
The province's 12,000 troops are concentrated
outside of the city, a military commander said.
Ahmad al-Askari, a Kurdish advisor for the province,
has no qualms about security responsibilities. "The
Kirkuk police, made up of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and
Christians, is capable of taking care of security,"
he said.
"And there are dozens of Arab officers in the
force."
Fellow Kurdish advisor Azad Jbari argued that
"members of the asaysh must be involved in security
because they have the competence and know how to
fight terrorism."
Despite the deep ethnic rifts which have delayed the
holding of provincial elections in Kirkuk,www.ekurd.net
both the Iraqi and US
militaries have been putting on a brave face.
"We are all set (for the withdrawal) and, if the
need arises, we can call on support from US forces,"
said General Abdul Reza al-Zaidi, the Iraqi army
commander for Kirkuk.
The US army says Iraqi forces have made the
necessary improvements in recent monhts to be ready
for the US pullback from urban areas, as agreed by
the two governments last November.
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,www.ekurd.net
which they call "the Kurdish
Jerusalem." Kurds see it as the rightful and
perfect capital of an autonomous Kurdistan state.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas through having back its
Kurdish inhabitants and repatriating the Arabs
relocated in the city during the former regime’s
time to their original provinces in central and
southern Iraq.
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.
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,
AFP | Agencies
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
®