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Iraq to 'review' relations after Turkey FM
visit to Kirkuk
7.8.2012 |
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Iraqi government spokesman Ali al- Dabbagh. Photo:
AFP/Getty Images
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (L) and the
governor of Kirkuk Najmaldin Karim, in
the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, on
August 2, 2012, during a rare visit by a
high-ranking Turkish official to the city. His visit
comes a day after Davutoglu visited
Kurdistan and met Kurdistan president, Massoud
Barzani, for talks that focused on the conflict in
Syria, and at a time of notably cool relations
between Baghdad and Ankara. Photo: UKS
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August 7, 2012
BAGHDAD,— Iraq is to "review" relations with
Turkey after Ankara's foreign minister visited the
disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk without
informing Baghdad, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh
said on Tuesday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's
visit
to Kirkuk on August 2 drew a furious reaction from
Baghdad and brought already-chilly relations between
the two countries to a new low.
"The cabinet studied recent developments in
Turkish-Iraqi relations and decided to review these
relations in light of recent developments in a new
cabinet meeting as soon as possible," Dabbagh said
in an emailed statement.
The cabinet also decided to form a committee headed
by Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani "to
investigate the circumstances of the Turkish foreign
minister's visit to Kirkuk and present
recommendations to the cabinet," he said.
Iraq's foreign ministry responded to the visit with
a statement saying "it is not in the interest of
Turkey or any other party to underestimate the
national sovereignty and violate the rules of
international relations."
But Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
defended the visit, saying it is only normal for "a
minister bearing a red passport to visit the
regional administration (in Kurdistan in north Iraq)
and then travel to Kirkuk,www.ekurd.net
40 kilometres from (Erbil) to meet with his
kinsmen."
Kirkuk province is part of a swathe of disputed
territory in northern Iraq that along with oil
contracts are among the main points of contention
between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government
in Erbil.
The oil-rich province of Kirkuk is one of the most disputed areas by the
regional government and the Iraqi government in Baghdad.
The Kurds are seeking to integrate the province into the semi-autonomous
Kurdistan Region clamming it to be historically a Kurdish city, 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." 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.
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