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Kurdistan borders defined by article 143
of the Iraqi constitution
28.6.2009
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June
28, 2009
BAGHDAD, — A
member of parliament from the Kurdistan Alliance
(KA) bloc said the content of Kurdish constitution
regarding the defining of the region’s borders is in
line with article 143 of the Iraqi constitution.
“Defining the administrative identity of the
disputed areas mentioned in the constitution hinges
on the application of article 140 of the
constitution,” Mohsen al-Saadoun told Aswat al-Iraq
news agency.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution is related to
the normalization of the situation in Kirkuk city
and other disputed areas. |
Iraq's Kurdistan region |
“The Kurdistan region
has practiced its constitutional rights guaranteed
by article 120 of the federal constitution. The
endorsement of the region’s constitution is a step
that was welcomed by all Iraqi powers,” he added.
Kurds seek to include the city in the autonomous
Iraq’s Kurdistan region,www.ekurd.net
while Sunni Muslims,
Turkmen and Shiites oppose the incorporation. The
article currently stipulates that all Arabs in
Kirkuk be returned to their original locations in
southern and central Iraqi areas, and formerly
displaced residents returned to Kirkuk, 250 km
northeast of Baghdad.
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.
These stages were supposed to end on December 31,
2007, a deadline that was later extended to six
months to end in July 2008.
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,www.ekurd.net
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.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
aswataliraq info | Agencies
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