Political tension on rise in Kirkuk
By Basil Adas, Correspondent
Baghdad: Kirkuk, the oil-rich province of northern Iraq is back in the forefront of political events in light of two developments: Turkish intervention to benefit the Iraqi Turkmen minority, and secondly the Kurdish leader Masoud Barazani's statements which asserted that Kirkuk is Kurdish land.
His statement infuriated the Turks and Sunni and Shiite Arabs. Khisro Mohammad, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's political bureau (led by President Jalal Talabani), told Gulf News: "The escalation in Kirkuk is basically Turkish escalation."
He accused the Turks of taking advantage of the Turkmen minority to drag the Kurds into a conflict with Arabs and Turkmen.
"Turks fear an increase in light of normalising of the situation in Kirkuk under Article 140 of the permanent Iraqi constitution, meaning that the process of a self-determination referendum is approaching by the end of the current year.
"Turks fear Kirkuk joining the Kurdistan region because it will encourage 15 million Kurds in Turkey towards asserting their rights. Besides the Turkish Prime Minister sought to escalate the Kirkuk issue as the date for the next election campaign in Turkey is approaching," he added.
Mohammad said he thought those causing the Kirkuk problem, in addition to Turks, were the dissolved Baath Party members and Arabs associated with the Ansar Al Sunna organisation close to Al Qaida.
...
Pertinent Links:
1) Political tension on rise in Kirkuk
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment