Thursday, April 26, 2007
Talabani - Kirkuk issue to be solved according to Iraqi constitution
Politics
(VOI) – Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that the Kirkuk issue will be solved according to the Iraqi constitution, considering Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be one of the best leaders to deal with the cause. "The Kirkuk issue will be solved according to the constitution," the president said at a press conference upon his arrival at the Sulaimaniya International Airport on Wednesday, referring to a statement made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who said that "we should normalize the situation in Kirkuk before carrying out a referendum.
"The province of Kirkuk, 250 km northeast of Baghdad, is home to Kurds, Arabs, Turkmans and ChaldoAssyrians, and is one of the most heated topics on the Iraqi political scene. The province is waiting for the establishment of procedures to normalize the situation through implementation of article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, returning displaced Arabs to their homes and offering them 20 million dinars in compensation. A census will follow the referendum, during which the people of Kirkuk will decide whether to stay part of the Iraqi federal government or to join Iraq's Kurdistan region.
"We expect that the Sharm el-Sheikh conference will provide us with economic and political support and strongly condemn terrorism," the president said in response to a question from a correspondent from the independent news agency Voices of Iraq (VOI). Regarding the building of a concrete wall in Azamiya in Baghdad, the president said "I'm against building barriers." Talabani, who is also the head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), arrived in Iraq at 2:00 pm on Wednesday.
Labels: Article 140, Iraqi constitution, Jalal Talabani, Kirkuk, Kirkuk referendum, Kurdistan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
