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Arab conference in Kirkuk demands
implementation of Article 23
29.6.2009
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June
29, 2009
KIRKUK, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
— The second Arab National Conference was held in
Kirkuk Saturday, and attended by tribal leaders and
other important Arab components of the province. The
conference was organized under the banner of
“Article 23 is the route to national consensus and
problem solving in Kirkuk.”
The conference was organized by two groups working
under the “Arab solidarity and Arab bloc center”,
and it came up with many important recommendations
including condemnation of recent violence,
particularly the suicide bomb attack in Taza south
of Kirkuk.
The secretary-general of the bloc, Hassan al-Hamadani
said that "the persistence of the Kirkuk crisis is
indicative of the failure of politicians to
facilitate the implementation of articles 58,140,
and 23 of the constitution.”
"Following the downfall of the former regime, the
Arab people of Iraq fell victim to corrupt and
sectarian people,www.ekurd.net
and those who are
skeptical about a possible solution couldn't imagine
that we can propose a set of suggestions and
solutions to resolve the Kirkuk problem, open the
knots, and fix the abuses according to the law,"
Hamadani added.
Chairman of the Al-Saada al-Ashraaf council, Atta
Al-Naimi, said that "we've come here to call for
closing of the ranks and strengthening the
relationships among the components of Kirkuk, and we
as representatives of the vast majority demand the
implementation of Article 23, and we hold members of
the Article 23 committee responsible for not
providing a solution."
A senior Sheikh from the Albouhamdan tribe, Abd
Ibrahim Al-Hamadani, reiterated the urgent need to
implement the provisions of Article 23.
The participants demanded the Presidency, council of
ministers and the parliament "to adopt the 32%
proportion [of distributing political posts
according to communal quotas] as an effective
solution and endeavor to resolve the agrarian
disputes which have remained unresolved since 2003."
Additionally, the participants called for the
supremacy of the Iraqi judiciary in Kirkuk and
condemned outright any arrest without the provision
of a proper warrant.
Regarding voters’ files and records of people in
Kirkuk, the participants demanded to adopt the 1977
census and moreover called to keep Al-Zab district
within Kirkuk province.
• Discord over Kurdistan regional constitution
According to a member of the Turkmen front list some
Turkmen and Arab members of the Kirkuk provincial
council oppose the constitution of the Kurdistan
Region and have asked the Iraqi supreme
constitutional court to not allow the implementation
of the constitution.
“We as Arabs and Turkmen oppose the regional
constitution as it has deviated from the Iraqi
constitution,” member of Kirkuk council on Turkmen
Front List Hassan Turhan told AKnews.
“We will never agree to Kirkuk, Khanaqeen and
Mandali to be part of the Kurdistan Region as
demanded by the Kurdish constitution,” he added.
Turhan said the regional constitution is not legal
because it should not be ratified by parliament
until after the elections.
Meanwhile,www.ekurd.net
Muhammad K. Jiboori, an
Arab member of the council, said “we demand from our
Kurdish brothers not to vote for the constitution as
it only serves the interests of the Kurdish
political parties.”
“We want to solve the Kirkuk issue through
consensus, not to complicate it even more,” Jiboori
added.
In conclusion he called for all sides to resolve
outstanding disputes through dialogue after US
forces withdraw from the country.
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,
aknews com | Agencies
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