Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Kirkuk referendum put off for two years
Politics, Region
(Azzaman) Iraq and Turkey have agreed to put off a contentious referendum on the fate of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk for two years. The referendum was scheduled to occur in July and was expected to decide whether the city and its giant oil fields will be annexed to the semi-independent Kurdish entity in the north.
Non-Kurdish communities in the Province of Tameen, of which Kirkuk is capital, had threatened to use all options including violence in order not to let Kirkuk slip away from the control of the central government in Baghdad. The decision to have the referendum postponed was taken during a recent visit by Vice-president Adel Abdulmahdi to Ankara.
The Turkish authorities had warned that they might resort to military force if the Kurds went ahead with plans to annex Kirkuk. The city has a sizeable Turkish community known as Turkmen and the majority apparently rejects the bid by Kurds to own the city.
Under the country’s provisional institution conditions in Kirkuk will have to be normalized which means that the tens of thousands of Arabs moved to the city under the former regime should be resettled in their original areas. The Kurds who were forced to evacuate the city should be given the opportunity to return. But it seems it is almost impossible to apply the measure amid the mounting violence and lack of security. Kirkuk itself is seen as one of the most restive areas in Iraq. The agreement with Ankara to postpone the referendum is bound to allay Arab and Turkmen’s fears, albeit temporarily, of an imminent Kurdish move to control the city.
Non-Kurdish communities in the Province of Tameen, of which Kirkuk is capital, had threatened to use all options including violence in order not to let Kirkuk slip away from the control of the central government in Baghdad. The decision to have the referendum postponed was taken during a recent visit by Vice-president Adel Abdulmahdi to Ankara.
The Turkish authorities had warned that they might resort to military force if the Kurds went ahead with plans to annex Kirkuk. The city has a sizeable Turkish community known as Turkmen and the majority apparently rejects the bid by Kurds to own the city.
Under the country’s provisional institution conditions in Kirkuk will have to be normalized which means that the tens of thousands of Arabs moved to the city under the former regime should be resettled in their original areas. The Kurds who were forced to evacuate the city should be given the opportunity to return. But it seems it is almost impossible to apply the measure amid the mounting violence and lack of security. Kirkuk itself is seen as one of the most restive areas in Iraq. The agreement with Ankara to postpone the referendum is bound to allay Arab and Turkmen’s fears, albeit temporarily, of an imminent Kurdish move to control the city.
Labels: Kirkuk, referendum, Turkey
