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Iraqi Turkmen: Calls for Boycott of
National Census
29.9.2010
By Layla Yousif Rahema |
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Scheduled for next month, first post-Saddam census
already causing tensions
September 29, 2010
KIRKUK/MOSUL, Iraq's border with Kurdistan
region, — The census is set for 24 October, but it
could undermine an already shaky balance of power.
The provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Anbar want the
count postponed. For local authorities, the Kurds
are trying to influence the outcome.
The first nation-wide census in Iraq since 1997,
also the first one since the fall of Saddam Hussein,
is becoming grounds for further factional and ethnic
strife. The authorities have said that the Iraqi
population will be counted on 24 October. However,
many have called for a postponement or else the
process would be boycotted. |
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Under the circumstances,
the census could be politicised in a country still
waiting for a government seven months after
parliamentary elections. Ultimately, the existing
shaky balance of power could get even shakier.
The provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk and Anbar are
against the census, unmoved by outgoing Prime
Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s firm wish to see the
census take place in all 18 Iraqi provinces on 24
October. In Nineveh, the northern province with
Mosul as capital that is home to Arabs, Kurds and
other minorities, the provincial council has
postponed the census.
For Governor Athil al-Nujaifi, an Arab nationalist,
the Peshmerga, the Kurdish armed forces that has
occupied a number of areas over the past several
years, must leave if the census is to go ahead.
Kurdish forces from the two main Kurdish parties,
the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK), must also leave their
headquarters.
According to al-Nujaifi, both Peshmerga and Kurdish
parties are trying to influence the situation in his
province to the benefit of the Kurdish group. Kurds
inhabit some areas in province, and the Kurdish
regional government would like to annex them at the
expense of the central government. One example is
the Nineveh Plains, home to an important Christian
community,www.ekurd.netwhich
has been targeted by the Kurds for quite some time.
According to Arab authorities in Nineveh, the KDP
and the PUK are trying to bring in Kurds from other
parts of Iraq in order to add them to the Nineveh
voter lists.
In response to Arab claims, Kurds say that Nineveh
historically belongs to them, insisting also that
the census is a constitutional duty for the whole of
Iraq, not just a single province. They point the
finger at those who want to boycott the census, and
note that Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘athist regime pursued
a policy of forced “Arabisation” in northern Iraq at
the expenses of the non-Arab population.
The situation is even more sensitive in Kirkuk.
Here, Arabs and Turkmen have directly called for a
boycott. For a long time, Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds
have vied for control over the oil-rich multi-ethnic
province. The census represents a fundamental step
from a Kurdish point of view towards annexation. A
population count is required under Article 140 of
the constitution as a first step towards a
referendum that would decide the status of Kirkuk,
either as part of Kurdistan or as a province under
the administration of the government in Baghdad.
The interests at stake in the province are huge.
This is why no elections have been held in four
years. The area’s energy resources are at the root
of the problem. Kirkuk has the second biggest oil
fields in Iraq and possesses 70 per cent of the
country’s natural gas deposits. If a referendum
gives the city to the Kurds, the latter might have
the means to achieve independence from the rest of
the country.
Nineveh and Kirkuk have been joined by the
predominantly Sunni Arab province of Anbar, in
western Iraq, in calling for a postponement of the
census. The local provincial council decided last
week to suspend the census until a new government is
set up to supervise the process.
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