|
Kirkuk status looms over Iraqi elections
28.6.2008
|
|
|
June
28, 2008
BAGHDAD,
— Iraqi parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani
said Thursday the status of Kirkuk needed to be
settled to avoid delaying the fall provincial
elections.
Iraq is scheduled to hold provincial elections Oct.
1, but disputes among ethnic Kurds, Arabs and
Turkomen over the northern Kurdish city of Kirkuk
threaten that date.
Kurdish officials oppose a measure calling for the
division of Kirkuk into four electoral districts
along sectarian lines, saying the move threatens
regional solidarity, The Kurdish Globe reports.
The Kurds also say any move to hold elections cannot
be considered until all elements of constitutional
Article 140, a measure reversing the Saddam-era
policy of "Arabization" of the region, are upheld.
Mashhadani in a statement "demanded all
parliamentary blocks either all agree to hold the
election or postpone it."
British diplomat and adviser to the U.S. Embassy in
Baghdad Thomas Krajiski said U.S. officials and the
United Nations are working toward a resolution on
the Kirkuk issue in order for the elections to take
place.
"We support holding elections in Kirkuk on schedule,www.ekurd.net
and we do not want them
postponed, because the city of Kirkuk is important
to all Iraqis and neighboring countries and nations
of the world," he said.
The Kurdistan Regional Government, however,
described such a move as interference, calling it
largely a matter for the Iraqi people to settle.
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, 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."
The article 140 in Iraqi constitution 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.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months, to June 2008.
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. Kirkuk, the
capital city of the oil-rich province of Kirkuk,
lies 250 km north of Baghdad.
Copyright, respective author or news agency, UPI |
Agencies
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
® 