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No Doubt about Kurdishness of Kirkuk:
Nawshirwan Mustafa
21.8.2008
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August
21, 2008
Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan region "Iraq", —
“There is no doubt about the Kurdishness of Kirkuk
and it has been within the Kurdistan region
geographical border throughout history. Kirkuk had
been the center of Sharazoor Wilayat (region) of the
Ottoman Empire reign.
Kirkuk had been a continuous headquarters for the
Othman rulers (Sultan), until the administrative
changes had taken place,” Kurdish Politician and
former PUK deputy, Nawshirwan Mustafa told al-Sabah
Iraqi daily newspaper on Wednesday.
“Historically, we see that Kurdish tribes, including
Jabbary, Kakayee, Jaff, Talabani, Dawuda,
Shekhbzenee, Hamawand, Shawan, and many other tribes
have been settling down around the city. |
Former PUK deputy Nawshirwan Mustafa |
Before the launch of the
Arabization policy-by the ousted Baath regime- most
of the areas even the valleys, hills, and other
historical traces had Kurdish names before,” he also
said.
“Before the oil exploration of in Kirkuk, it was
somewhat a small city. With reference to (Hana
Batatu) book,www.ekurd.net
we see that information
which the Iraqi ministry for agriculture and
agricultural reformation recorded in that period
that all those oil wells which were discovered in
those lands owned by Kurdish landlords,www.ekurd.net
for example Baba Gurgur
oil field was owned by a Kurdish family called Ahmed
called Khanak,” he added.
He pointed out that after the exploration of oil in
Kirkuk; Arabs came to the city. He said no Arab was
living in Hawija district before the thirties of the
last century, but it was a grazing land owned by the
Kurdish tribes, and after the exploration of oil in
Kirkuk in 1972 the area was arabized.
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."
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas.
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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
pukmedia com | Agencies
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