Report from KERKUK

Kerkuk Assembly member Mr. Ali Mehdi met in his office on 13th June 2007 with Mrs. Elison Camp, the Consul General of the United Kingdom in northern Iraq. The issues related to Kerkuk and its future have been discussed.

Mrs. Elison Camp stated that the Government of the United Kingdom is supporting the implementation of the referendum in Kerkuk; however the remaining time seems not enough to conclude it. She said the proper steps are to be taken in this regard and the United Nations could be involved in consultancy basis.

Mr. Ali Mehdi asked her about the timing. She answered that there are sources in Baghdad, which suggest five years and Turkey is talking about 15 years, but she said that they support an earlier solution provided that this solution is for the sake of everybody.

During this meeting, Mr. Ali Mehdi explained the view of the Turkmen citizens in Kerkuk. He said that the Kurdish parties, namely KDP and PUK are pretending that Article 140 is a 'Kurdish matter'.

The normalization is meant to be just for those who have lost their properties and not for the hundreds of thousands who have been brought in Kerkuk to change the ethnic composition of the city.

Mr. Ali Mehdi added that he had submitted fair and concrete suggestions to solve this issue, but that these have been ignored completely by the Kurds.

He said that the best solution is to keep Kerkuk as a private region, where all ethnic groups are represented in equal way. This solution is for the benefit of Iraq and this is the reason why Turkmens refuse the referendum.

Turkmens urge the government of the United Kingdom to discuss this matter and organize conferences where ALL the ethnic groups of Kerkuk are represented.