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Kurdistan's Peshmerga: We will not
withdraw from any Kurdish areas under our control
12.6.2014
Ekurd.net |
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J abbar Yawar,
the Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga. Photo:
Yawar's page •
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June 12, 2014
ERBIL-Hewlęr, Kurdistan region 'Iraq',— The
Kurdish Peshmerga military forces of Kurdistan
Region take control of regions in the Iraqi disputed
areas, the Secretary General of the Ministry of
Peshmerga said.
The multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, home to one of
Iraq's largest oil fields, was
taken
over by Kurdistan's Peshmerga
military forces after Iraqi government troops left
the city ahead of a possible attack by radical
Islamic insurgents who have already seized two major
Iraqi cities.
Jabar Yawar, a spokesperson for Kurdistan's
Peshmerga said
in a statement that "The whole of Kirkuk has fallen
into the hands of Peshmerga," said Jabbar Yawar. "No
Iraqi army remains in Kirkuk now."
Yawar told Rudaw that the Peshmerga will not
withdraw from any Kurdish areas outside Kurdistan
Region that have been liberated and are under the control of Peshmerga,
because we could not risk leavingwww.Ekurd.net
the Kurdish residents without protection.
All Kurdish areas outside Kurdistan Region (Iraq's
disputed areas) is now under full control of the
Peshmerga, Yawar added.
Yawar also told the media that more than 200,000
Iraqi army forces have fled northern cities
of Mosul and Kirkuk after attacks on the cities by
the ISIS.
Kurds have started this move after Iraqi soldiers
withdraw from their positions in Mosul city, several
other towns and cities after the attack by the
Islamic-jihadists from the Islamic State in Iraq and
Sham ISIS linked to al-Qaeda organization.
Need to be mentioned that the Peshmerga forces
take control of regions in the Iraqi disputed
province of Kirkuk and the main airport in the
second-biggest city of Mosul in Nineveh province
which fell into the hands of ISIS jihadists.
The Kurds are seeking to integrate Kirkuk 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"
Kirkuk
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.
Diyala province, a restive part of Iraq outside the Kurdish
autonomous region of Kurdistan but home to many Kurds. The Diyala district, which includes a string of villages and
some of Iraq's oil reserves, is home to about 175,000 Kurds, most of them
Shiites.
During the Arabisation policy of Saddam Hussein in the 1980s, a large number of
Kurdish Shiites were displaced by force from the Kurdish city of Khanaqin. They started returning
after the fall of Saddam in 2003.
Kurdistan's government says oil-rich Khanaqin in Diyala province should be part
of its autonomous Kurdistan region.
Mosul, capital city of Nineveh province in Iraq, near
the border with Kurdistan region, lies 405 km north
of Baghdad. The Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds located near Mosul.
Kurdish Yazidis are primarily ethnic Kurds located
near Mosul. Some 350,000 Yazidis live
in villages around Mosul near Kurdistan autonomous region border.
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