On Thursday 27th November 2008, at about 4.30 pm. Mr. Abdulamir Huseyin Bektaş, member of the Turkmen Municipal Council of Tuz Khurmatu and Mr. Talib Ali, member of the Supreme Islamic Council Representative in the village of Yengejeh which lies 4 km west of Tuz Khurmatu were assassinated by unknown gunmen.
They died after their car was sprayed with bullets while they were leaving the Yengejeh village and heading towards the Turkmen district of Tuz Khurmatu.
Their bodies were taken immediately to Tuz Khurmatu hospital for identification and were transferred to Kerkuk in order to carry out a post-mortem examination.
In the meantime another group of unidentified gunmen cut off the road and seized a bus carrying workers travelling home from the poultry field which is located about 10 kilometres north of Tuz Khurmatu. These gunmen shot the bus driver and a worker. Both victims were Arabs from the district of Suleyman Bag.
The gunmen were chased by the police and they were surrounded in a rural area near the village of Albu Sabah which is located about 5 km north of the district of Tuz Khurmatu.
The following statement was released by the chief police of Tuz Khurmatu, Colonel Hussein Ali Rashid: “After an exchange of fire between the two parties, one of the gunmen blew himself up and the other terrorist was shot by the police. The rest of the terrorists managed to escape and 3 policemen were injured as a result”.
http://www.turkishforum.com/content/2008/11/29/a-bloody-day-in-the-district-of-the-turkmen-city-of-tuz-khormatu/
samedi 29 novembre 2008
IRAK TÜRKMEN CEPHESI Communique
العدد:82
التاريخ:29 /11/2008
تصريح
بدأت فضائية معينة بمهاجمة الجبهة التركمانية العراقية من خلال شخص
الدكتور سعد الدين اركيج رئيس الجبهة التركمانية العراقية و عضو مجلس النواب الذي و افق على اتفاقية الانسحاب
هنا لا تحاول الجبهة ان تدافع عن موقفها , فالشعب العراقي يعرف تماما الذين جاؤوا على متن الدبابات الأمريكية او بحمايتها , ولسبب او أخر تركوا العراق و هي أسباب معروفة أمام العراقيين و المعروف ان الجبهة التركمانية العراقية لم تكن من الإطراف التي دعت القوات الامريكية الى الدخول الى الاراضي العراقية و الى هذا اليوم تدافع عن وحدة العراق ارضا و شعبا
إننا شرحنا و جهة نظرنا و لماذا الموافقة في بيان رسمي دون ان نزايد على وطنية الآخرين فالجبهة لم و لن تغير موقفها المناهض للغزو و الاحتلال , بينما هناك البعض من الذين جاؤوا بالاحتلال و هللوا و طبلوا لقوات الغزو و الاحتلال فيما بعد و أعلنوا بفخر رفعهم العلم الأمريكي , يحاولون ألان عزف نغمة نشاز و المتاجرة بمشاعر العراقيين و هم قابعون خارج الحدود لكسب العراقيين الذين كشفوهم
ان الاتفاقية تطالب صراحة بالانسحاب الأمريكي من العراق و تدعم كثيرا الحكومة المركزية , مما لا يسمح مجالا لمن ساندوا قوات الغزو و الاحتلال من استغلال الدعم الأمريكي لمصالح حزبية ضيقة
و لكون الاستقرار في العراق هش وان عدم توقيع الاتفاقية يؤدي إلى انسحاب أمريكي فوري مما يترك فراغا امنيا قد يؤدي الى حرب ( أهلية لا سمح الله ) ومن ثم تفتيت العراق الى دويلات ضمن مشروع بايدن لتقسيم العراق
و تؤكد الجبهة التركمانية العراقية بأن 148 نائبا من مختلف الكتل السياسية قد وافقوا على الاتفاقية و لم يكن الدكتور سعد الدين اركيج و حده و تؤكد أيضا بأن موافقة الجبهة جاءت بعد مناقشة وثيقة الإصلاح السياسي و الموافقة على عرض الاتفاقية على الاستفتاء الشعبي في تموز 2009
وان الاستفتاء الشعبي يشكل ضمانة للعراق و العراقيين.
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Adres:Kerkük. Bağdat yolu. Valilik binası yanında
E.mail:itc_media@yahoo.com
US-IRAQI AGREEMENT explained by Raed Jarrar
Raed Jarrar on the US - IRAQI Agreement
Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar
'In the Middle'
To watch the video please click on:
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/
Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar
'In the Middle'
To watch the video please click on:
http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/
EU ready to host more Iraqi Refugees
By Jim Brunsden
28.11.2008 / 13:14 CET
EU states accept the idea of resettling 10,000 Iraqi refugees, but only Germany publicly commits itself to joining the list of eight current hosts.
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2008/11/eu-ready-to-host-more-iraqi-refugees/63252.aspx
Human-rights organisations have welcomed a commitment by EU member states to set up a scheme for the resettlement of Iraqi refugees, even though they have reserved the option not to take part in what could prove to be the assimilation of around 10,000 refugees.
Speaking after the meeting, which was held on 27 November, France's immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, said that a voluntary scheme was the only possibility because there “would not have been an agreement if it had been based on a constraint” and it remains unclear how many European countries will participate. Hortefeux restricted himself to saying only that “most of the countries round the table were interested and felt concerned”.
The only country without a formal resettlement programme to have made a clear commitment to participate is Germany, which has said that it will take up to 2,500 refugees. The initiative for the voluntary scheme originated with calls from Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, at a ministerial meeting in April. Schäuble's proposal was focused specifically on Christian refugees. Although, there was no specific reference to Iraq's Christian community in the final scheme, Germany remains committed to it.
Eight EU states have formal resettlement schemes for Iraqi refugees. According to the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, 2,354 Iraqi refugees have been resettled in the EU since April 2007, when efforts on resettlement got properly underway. Sweden has been by far the most active state in accepting Iraqi refugees in that period, accepting 1,358 refugees. France has been the second most hospitable, taking in 317. The other six EU states with formal programmes are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. Over the same period, the US has accepted 15,995.
The significance of the initiative is substantially lower than the headline figure suggests because, as Hortefeux said, the figure takes account of people who have already been resettled in the Union. The conclusions do not give a timeline for getting to the figure of 10,000.
Hortefeux, who chaired the ministerial meeting, also added that the number was an “approximate” target.
UNHCR, which will help member states administer the scheme, estimates that at present there are over two million Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan. It says that a significant minority are unlikely to be able to return safely to Iraq and should be resettled in other countries.
Though the scheme would resettle a small number of that total and despite its voluntary nature, a number of human-rights organisations, including the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), have responded enthusiastically to the scheme. Annette Bombeke of the ECRE described it is “a great step forward”.
Bombeke raised one specific concern – that it is “not clear” how many Palestinian refugees in Iraq will be included in the 10,000. There are currently around 3,000 Palestinians stranded in refugee camps on the border between Iraq and Syria, because the Syrian authorities have denied them entry.
Both ECRE and Amnesty International have identified the Palestinians as a group facing particularly extreme difficulties, and one with an especially strong case for resettlement. In their agreement ministers acknowledge “the particular situation of the Palestinians” and said that “no solution other than resettlement appears to be feasible”. They do not explain, however, how this will translate into action.
© 2008 European Voice. All rights reserved.
28.11.2008 / 13:14 CET
EU states accept the idea of resettling 10,000 Iraqi refugees, but only Germany publicly commits itself to joining the list of eight current hosts.
http://www.europeanvoice.com/article/2008/11/eu-ready-to-host-more-iraqi-refugees/63252.aspx
Human-rights organisations have welcomed a commitment by EU member states to set up a scheme for the resettlement of Iraqi refugees, even though they have reserved the option not to take part in what could prove to be the assimilation of around 10,000 refugees.
Speaking after the meeting, which was held on 27 November, France's immigration minister, Brice Hortefeux, said that a voluntary scheme was the only possibility because there “would not have been an agreement if it had been based on a constraint” and it remains unclear how many European countries will participate. Hortefeux restricted himself to saying only that “most of the countries round the table were interested and felt concerned”.
The only country without a formal resettlement programme to have made a clear commitment to participate is Germany, which has said that it will take up to 2,500 refugees. The initiative for the voluntary scheme originated with calls from Germany's interior minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, at a ministerial meeting in April. Schäuble's proposal was focused specifically on Christian refugees. Although, there was no specific reference to Iraq's Christian community in the final scheme, Germany remains committed to it.
Eight EU states have formal resettlement schemes for Iraqi refugees. According to the UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, 2,354 Iraqi refugees have been resettled in the EU since April 2007, when efforts on resettlement got properly underway. Sweden has been by far the most active state in accepting Iraqi refugees in that period, accepting 1,358 refugees. France has been the second most hospitable, taking in 317. The other six EU states with formal programmes are Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Portugal and the UK. Over the same period, the US has accepted 15,995.
The significance of the initiative is substantially lower than the headline figure suggests because, as Hortefeux said, the figure takes account of people who have already been resettled in the Union. The conclusions do not give a timeline for getting to the figure of 10,000.
Hortefeux, who chaired the ministerial meeting, also added that the number was an “approximate” target.
UNHCR, which will help member states administer the scheme, estimates that at present there are over two million Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan. It says that a significant minority are unlikely to be able to return safely to Iraq and should be resettled in other countries.
Though the scheme would resettle a small number of that total and despite its voluntary nature, a number of human-rights organisations, including the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE), have responded enthusiastically to the scheme. Annette Bombeke of the ECRE described it is “a great step forward”.
Bombeke raised one specific concern – that it is “not clear” how many Palestinian refugees in Iraq will be included in the 10,000. There are currently around 3,000 Palestinians stranded in refugee camps on the border between Iraq and Syria, because the Syrian authorities have denied them entry.
Both ECRE and Amnesty International have identified the Palestinians as a group facing particularly extreme difficulties, and one with an especially strong case for resettlement. In their agreement ministers acknowledge “the particular situation of the Palestinians” and said that “no solution other than resettlement appears to be feasible”. They do not explain, however, how this will translate into action.
© 2008 European Voice. All rights reserved.
vendredi 28 novembre 2008
jeudi 27 novembre 2008
Irak Türkmen Cephesi (Genel Merkez) Communique
(Genel Merkez)الدائرة الاعلامية
العدد:83
التاريخ:27/11/2008
بيان
The « Fait accompli » imposed by the Kurds in Kerkuk is inadmissible!
Kerkuk 'Final Masterplan Report - October 2008'
Kerkuk Province Council has published what it calls the ‘Final Masterplan Report – October 2008’ on its website: http://kirkukpc.net/
Please see:
http://kirkukpc.net/kirkuk%20design/index.htm
http://www.kirkukpc.net/English/Index.html
http://kirkukpc.net/kirkuk%20design/Phase%202.pdf
Looking at the maps of Kerkuk shown on Kerkuk Provincial Council website, it is clear that important infrastructures will be built to accommodate the thousands of Kurdish settlers who were brought to Kerkuk by the parties of the Kurdish warlords Barzani and Talabani (PDK and PUK) after 10th April 2003. These Kurdish settlers were settled in Kerkuk to alter the city’s demography.
Indeed, taking advantage of the chaos which prevailed in Iraq after the US-UK invasion the Kurdish militias invaded and occupied Kerkuk on 10th April 2008. Subsequently the Kurdish parties brought over 600.000 Kurds from the Kurdish autonomous region as well as from neighbouring countries (Syria, Iran and Turkey) and settled them in Kerkuk and its surroundings. These newly arrived Kurds occupied Iraqi government buildings, sports stadium, military camps, military personnel housing and compounds in and around Kerkuk and the remaining are now living in makeshift houses and slums established on the lands belonging to the Turkmens.
Contrary to what the Kurds are claiming, the majority of these Kurdish settlers had not been evicted from Kerkuk by Saddam Hussein and they had no links whatsoever with the city. These Kurdish “immigrants” have no houses to return to and no legal identification papers or deeds proving that they owned properties or land in Kerkuk.
The Kurds’ aim is to kurdify oil-rich Kerkuk and claim that the city has a Kurdish majority, placing its original inhabitants, the Turkmens and Arabs in front of a ‘fait accompli’.
This is part of the Machiavellian plan of the Kurdish warlords to annex Kerkuk to their autonomous Kurdistan region through a referendum called for by the infamous Article 140, which was conceived and written by the Kurds and which has been incorporated under the pressure of their lobby in the “New Iraqi Constitution”.
All IRAQIS who are opposed to this “fait accompli” by the Kurds, are urged to write to the Kerkuk Provincial Council at Kirkuk_pc@yahoo.com to express their opposition and disapproval of this ‘Masterplan’ which has been elaborated to accommodate Kurdish settlers in Kerkuk thereby accepting the “de facto” kurdification of the city.
They should also demand for Turkish to be added to the languages on Kerkuk Provincial Council Website. Currently only Arabic, Kurdish and English (!) are mentioned. This is inadmissible, the Turkmens’ culture and identity should not continue to be undermined if Iraq is to become a democratic country!
See also:
KURDS APPOINTED IN IRAQI EMBASSIES ISSUE PASSPORTS TO NON -IRAQI KURDS IN ORDER TO ALLOW THESE FOREIGNERS TO REGISTER IN KERKUK:
http://turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2007/05/kurds-appointed-in-iraqi-embassies.html
http://turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post_04.html
In the meantime, the Iraqi Property Claims Commission (IPCC) hasn’t done anything to compensate the Turkmens for the loss of their properties and lands, confiscated under the former regime. From the 35.000 claims which have been handed to the Commission in Kerkuk four years ago, the Commission has dealt with less than 5.000 claims, all belonging to Kurds, while the remaining 30.000+ claims, ALL belonging to Turkmens, are still ‘pending’.
Kerkuk Province Council has published what it calls the ‘Final Masterplan Report – October 2008’ on its website: http://kirkukpc.net/
Please see:
http://kirkukpc.net/kirkuk%20design/index.htm
http://www.kirkukpc.net/English/Index.html
http://kirkukpc.net/kirkuk%20design/Phase%202.pdf
Looking at the maps of Kerkuk shown on Kerkuk Provincial Council website, it is clear that important infrastructures will be built to accommodate the thousands of Kurdish settlers who were brought to Kerkuk by the parties of the Kurdish warlords Barzani and Talabani (PDK and PUK) after 10th April 2003. These Kurdish settlers were settled in Kerkuk to alter the city’s demography.
Indeed, taking advantage of the chaos which prevailed in Iraq after the US-UK invasion the Kurdish militias invaded and occupied Kerkuk on 10th April 2008. Subsequently the Kurdish parties brought over 600.000 Kurds from the Kurdish autonomous region as well as from neighbouring countries (Syria, Iran and Turkey) and settled them in Kerkuk and its surroundings. These newly arrived Kurds occupied Iraqi government buildings, sports stadium, military camps, military personnel housing and compounds in and around Kerkuk and the remaining are now living in makeshift houses and slums established on the lands belonging to the Turkmens.
Contrary to what the Kurds are claiming, the majority of these Kurdish settlers had not been evicted from Kerkuk by Saddam Hussein and they had no links whatsoever with the city. These Kurdish “immigrants” have no houses to return to and no legal identification papers or deeds proving that they owned properties or land in Kerkuk.
The Kurds’ aim is to kurdify oil-rich Kerkuk and claim that the city has a Kurdish majority, placing its original inhabitants, the Turkmens and Arabs in front of a ‘fait accompli’.
This is part of the Machiavellian plan of the Kurdish warlords to annex Kerkuk to their autonomous Kurdistan region through a referendum called for by the infamous Article 140, which was conceived and written by the Kurds and which has been incorporated under the pressure of their lobby in the “New Iraqi Constitution”.
All IRAQIS who are opposed to this “fait accompli” by the Kurds, are urged to write to the Kerkuk Provincial Council at Kirkuk_pc@yahoo.com to express their opposition and disapproval of this ‘Masterplan’ which has been elaborated to accommodate Kurdish settlers in Kerkuk thereby accepting the “de facto” kurdification of the city.
They should also demand for Turkish to be added to the languages on Kerkuk Provincial Council Website. Currently only Arabic, Kurdish and English (!) are mentioned. This is inadmissible, the Turkmens’ culture and identity should not continue to be undermined if Iraq is to become a democratic country!
See also:
KURDS APPOINTED IN IRAQI EMBASSIES ISSUE PASSPORTS TO NON -IRAQI KURDS IN ORDER TO ALLOW THESE FOREIGNERS TO REGISTER IN KERKUK:
http://turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2007/05/kurds-appointed-in-iraqi-embassies.html
http://turkmenfriendship.blogspot.com/2008/01/blog-post_04.html
In the meantime, the Iraqi Property Claims Commission (IPCC) hasn’t done anything to compensate the Turkmens for the loss of their properties and lands, confiscated under the former regime. From the 35.000 claims which have been handed to the Commission in Kerkuk four years ago, the Commission has dealt with less than 5.000 claims, all belonging to Kurds, while the remaining 30.000+ claims, ALL belonging to Turkmens, are still ‘pending’.
The Turkmens with their 3 million people, representing 12% of the Iraqi population, are the third main ethnic group composing the Iraqi people, they represent 30% of the population in the north of Iraq where they constitute the second most important ethnic group. Despite these facts, the Turkmens are unjustly referred to as a “minority” in the Iraqi Constitution. Turkmens are also unjustly considered as a “minority” in the “draft Constitution” of the Kurdish region.
mercredi 26 novembre 2008
Why is the US staying silent on its view of Iraq Pact?
Posted on Tuesday, November 25, 2008
U.S. staying silent on its view of Iraq pact until after vote
By Adam Ashton, Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/56474.html
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has adopted a much looser interpretation than the Iraqi government of several key provisions of the pending U.S.-Iraq security agreement, U.S. officials said Tuesday — just hours before the Iraqi parliament was to hold its historic vote.
These include a provision that bans the launch of attacks on other countries from Iraq, a requirement to notify the Iraqis in advance of U.S. military operations and the question of Iraqi legal jurisdiction over American troops and military contractors.
Officials in Washington said the administration has withheld the official English translation of the agreement in an effort to suppress a public dispute with the Iraqis until after the Iraqi parliament votes.
"There are a number of areas in here where they have agreement on the same wording but different understandings about what the words mean," said a U.S. official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Iraqi government Tuesday achieved a breakthrough on the pact, which calls for American troops to leave Iraq by 2012, by gaining conditional support from Tawafuq, a bloc of Sunni Muslim parties. Tawafuq's condition was that the government holds a nationwide referendum on it next year.
The Sunnis also want the U.S. to refrain from implementing wording that they consider vague, though lawmakers declined to say which passages concerned them.
In some areas, three officials told McClatchy, the U.S. and Iraq have agreed on the words but have different interpretations of what they mean. All three declined to speak on the record because the administration, which had planned to release the official English language text last week, has instead designated it "sensitive but unclassified."
The White House National Security Council said it had held up the translation's release until the Iraqi parliament votes. "We plan to release it soon," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "We are waiting for the Iraqi political process to move further down the road."
A U.S. official, however, said the aim was also to head off any debate in the U.S. media. The administration fears that any discussion "may inadvertently throw this thing of the rails," said the official, who couldn't be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.
The Iraqi parliament began distributing an Arabic version of the document nearly two weeks ago, and Iraqi television has been broadcasting excerpts this week. On Tuesday, a pickup truck loaded with boxes of blue books containing the Arabic version parked outside the parliament in Baghdad, where officials handed out copies to journalists.
McClatchy's Baghdad bureau last week produced an unofficial English translation of the agreement based on the Arabic text. McClatchy on Tuesday also obtained an official English version.
U.S. officials have told McClatchy that the Bush administration was eager to complete the deal before it leaves office in January and acquiesced to many Iraqi demands.
Two U.S. officials, however, said that if it becomes clear that the Bush administration has different interpretations of some key provisions than Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government does, Iraqi lawmakers might balk at approving the pact or delay a vote while seeking clarification. The current United Nations mandate governing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq expires on Dec. 31.
Specialists who follow the Iraq war said they were aware of the differing interpretations. Michael O'Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution, a center-left research group in Washington, said there are "these areas that are not as clear cut as the Iraqis would like to think." He said the two governments "have agreed to punt together on a number of important issues."
Among the areas of dispute are:
Iraqi legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops or military contractors who kill Iraqis on operations. The agreement calls for Iraq to prosecute U.S. troops according to court procedures that have yet to be worked out. Those negotiations, administration officials have argued, could take three years, by which time the U.S. will have withdrawn from Iraq under the terms of the agreement. In the interim, U.S. troops will remain under the jurisdiction of America's Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A provision that bars the U.S. from launching military operations into neighboring countries from Iraqi territory. Administration officials argue they could circumvent that in some cases, such as pursuing groups that launch strikes on U.S. targets from Syria or Iran, by citing another provision that allows each party to retain the right of self-defense. One official expressed concern that "if Iran gets wind that we think there's a loophole there," Tehran might renew its opposition to the agreement.
A provision that appears to require the U.S. to notify Iraqi officials in advance of any planned military operations and to seek Iraqi approval for them, which some U.S. military officials find especially troubling, although Robert Gates, the secretary of defense, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the head of the U.S. Central Command, and Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, all have endorsed it.
"Telling the Iraqis in advance would be an invitation to an ambush," said one U.S. official, who said the Iraqi government and security forces are "thoroughly penetrated by the insurgents, the Iranians, the Sadrists (followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr) and ordinary folks who just sell scraps of intelligence."
The administration has sought to assuage such concerns by arguing that the pact doesn't require the U.S. to give the Iraqis detailed information about planned operations, two officials said. For example, they said, the administration interprets the agreement to mean that U.S. commanders would merely need to inform their Iraqi counterparts that they plan to launch counterterrorism operations somewhere in an Iraqi city or province sometime during the month of January.
Such differing interpretations could present problems. Sunni lawmaker Omar Abdul Sattar said Tuesday that Tawafuq, the Sunni alliance, wants a pledge that the Americans will not implement articles in the security agreement that Tawafuq considers vague.
The Sunnis also are insisting that the agreement be submitted to a national referendum next year. Without that assurance, the Sunni lawmakers said they'd reject the deal, denying it the appearance of national unity that's considered essential for it to succeed.
"The government should be committed to the results of the referendum, whether people will accept the (security agreement), or reject it," Sattar said.
Supporters of the pact likely have enough votes to guarantee its passage without the Tawafuq alliance, but Sunni support was considered essential to demonstrate a national accordance favoring the treaty.
The Sunnis said they plan to submit their proposal Wednesday as a resolution that would be separate from the vote on the security agreement, which also is due for a vote Wednesday.
The Sunnis' proposal emerged on a day that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and two deputy prime ministers made last-minute efforts to cajole lawmakers into supporting the deal.
They described the agreement as the best option for Iraq to end the American occupation while upholding the improvements in security over the past year.
"This agreement is meant to support the nascent democratic process in Iraq," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurdish politician who advises Maliki. "This is for Iraq, not any party or group."
(Ashton, who reports for the Modesto (Calif.) Bee, reported from Baghdad. Landay and Youssef reported from Washington. Warren P. Strobel contributed to this article.)
U.S. staying silent on its view of Iraq pact until after vote
By Adam Ashton, Jonathan S. Landay and Nancy A. Youssef McClatchy Newspapers
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/56474.html
WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has adopted a much looser interpretation than the Iraqi government of several key provisions of the pending U.S.-Iraq security agreement, U.S. officials said Tuesday — just hours before the Iraqi parliament was to hold its historic vote.
These include a provision that bans the launch of attacks on other countries from Iraq, a requirement to notify the Iraqis in advance of U.S. military operations and the question of Iraqi legal jurisdiction over American troops and military contractors.
Officials in Washington said the administration has withheld the official English translation of the agreement in an effort to suppress a public dispute with the Iraqis until after the Iraqi parliament votes.
"There are a number of areas in here where they have agreement on the same wording but different understandings about what the words mean," said a U.S. official who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
The Iraqi government Tuesday achieved a breakthrough on the pact, which calls for American troops to leave Iraq by 2012, by gaining conditional support from Tawafuq, a bloc of Sunni Muslim parties. Tawafuq's condition was that the government holds a nationwide referendum on it next year.
The Sunnis also want the U.S. to refrain from implementing wording that they consider vague, though lawmakers declined to say which passages concerned them.
In some areas, three officials told McClatchy, the U.S. and Iraq have agreed on the words but have different interpretations of what they mean. All three declined to speak on the record because the administration, which had planned to release the official English language text last week, has instead designated it "sensitive but unclassified."
The White House National Security Council said it had held up the translation's release until the Iraqi parliament votes. "We plan to release it soon," said spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "We are waiting for the Iraqi political process to move further down the road."
A U.S. official, however, said the aim was also to head off any debate in the U.S. media. The administration fears that any discussion "may inadvertently throw this thing of the rails," said the official, who couldn't be named because he wasn't authorized to speak to reporters.
The Iraqi parliament began distributing an Arabic version of the document nearly two weeks ago, and Iraqi television has been broadcasting excerpts this week. On Tuesday, a pickup truck loaded with boxes of blue books containing the Arabic version parked outside the parliament in Baghdad, where officials handed out copies to journalists.
McClatchy's Baghdad bureau last week produced an unofficial English translation of the agreement based on the Arabic text. McClatchy on Tuesday also obtained an official English version.
U.S. officials have told McClatchy that the Bush administration was eager to complete the deal before it leaves office in January and acquiesced to many Iraqi demands.
Two U.S. officials, however, said that if it becomes clear that the Bush administration has different interpretations of some key provisions than Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's government does, Iraqi lawmakers might balk at approving the pact or delay a vote while seeking clarification. The current United Nations mandate governing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq expires on Dec. 31.
Specialists who follow the Iraq war said they were aware of the differing interpretations. Michael O'Hanlon, of the Brookings Institution, a center-left research group in Washington, said there are "these areas that are not as clear cut as the Iraqis would like to think." He said the two governments "have agreed to punt together on a number of important issues."
Among the areas of dispute are:
Iraqi legal jurisdiction over U.S. troops or military contractors who kill Iraqis on operations. The agreement calls for Iraq to prosecute U.S. troops according to court procedures that have yet to be worked out. Those negotiations, administration officials have argued, could take three years, by which time the U.S. will have withdrawn from Iraq under the terms of the agreement. In the interim, U.S. troops will remain under the jurisdiction of America's Uniform Code of Military Justice.
A provision that bars the U.S. from launching military operations into neighboring countries from Iraqi territory. Administration officials argue they could circumvent that in some cases, such as pursuing groups that launch strikes on U.S. targets from Syria or Iran, by citing another provision that allows each party to retain the right of self-defense. One official expressed concern that "if Iran gets wind that we think there's a loophole there," Tehran might renew its opposition to the agreement.
A provision that appears to require the U.S. to notify Iraqi officials in advance of any planned military operations and to seek Iraqi approval for them, which some U.S. military officials find especially troubling, although Robert Gates, the secretary of defense, Army Gen. David Petraeus, the head of the U.S. Central Command, and Army Gen. Raymond Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, all have endorsed it.
"Telling the Iraqis in advance would be an invitation to an ambush," said one U.S. official, who said the Iraqi government and security forces are "thoroughly penetrated by the insurgents, the Iranians, the Sadrists (followers of anti-American Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr) and ordinary folks who just sell scraps of intelligence."
The administration has sought to assuage such concerns by arguing that the pact doesn't require the U.S. to give the Iraqis detailed information about planned operations, two officials said. For example, they said, the administration interprets the agreement to mean that U.S. commanders would merely need to inform their Iraqi counterparts that they plan to launch counterterrorism operations somewhere in an Iraqi city or province sometime during the month of January.
Such differing interpretations could present problems. Sunni lawmaker Omar Abdul Sattar said Tuesday that Tawafuq, the Sunni alliance, wants a pledge that the Americans will not implement articles in the security agreement that Tawafuq considers vague.
The Sunnis also are insisting that the agreement be submitted to a national referendum next year. Without that assurance, the Sunni lawmakers said they'd reject the deal, denying it the appearance of national unity that's considered essential for it to succeed.
"The government should be committed to the results of the referendum, whether people will accept the (security agreement), or reject it," Sattar said.
Supporters of the pact likely have enough votes to guarantee its passage without the Tawafuq alliance, but Sunni support was considered essential to demonstrate a national accordance favoring the treaty.
The Sunnis said they plan to submit their proposal Wednesday as a resolution that would be separate from the vote on the security agreement, which also is due for a vote Wednesday.
The Sunnis' proposal emerged on a day that Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and two deputy prime ministers made last-minute efforts to cajole lawmakers into supporting the deal.
They described the agreement as the best option for Iraq to end the American occupation while upholding the improvements in security over the past year.
"This agreement is meant to support the nascent democratic process in Iraq," said Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh, a Kurdish politician who advises Maliki. "This is for Iraq, not any party or group."
(Ashton, who reports for the Modesto (Calif.) Bee, reported from Baghdad. Landay and Youssef reported from Washington. Warren P. Strobel contributed to this article.)
mardi 25 novembre 2008
Letter from Mr. Orhan Ketene, an Iraqi Turkmen, to President Elect Barack Obama
President Elect Barack Obama
Nov. 24, 2008
Dear and Honorable Mr. President:
Congratulations on your historical election as the president of the United States of America. Your victory is the triumph of hope, a hope for a good change and a better future for the United States and the world.
I am writing to you not just because you won an election but because you have good intentions and you stand for justice and equality.
As a Turkmen from Northern Iraq, I ask you to pay attention to the plight of the Turkmens who are the second largest community in Northern Iraq and the third largest one in Iraq.
This peaceful and civilized people have been a part of Iraq’s history for at least fifteen centuries and have contributed a lot to this country. Their monuments throughout the history still stand.
Turkmens have always been friendly with neighboring communities in the region. They have shared their wealth and lands with the others for thousand years.
However, for the last nine decades, they have been unjustifiably prejudiced as disloyal to the country and wrongfully portrayed as the fifth column of a neighboring state. They have been under suspicion and have been victims of assimilation and ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Their population, which is in the category of millions, had been ignored and until today, they have been treated as a small minority by every administration in Iraq. My people were and are marginalized and denied their right of self determination, autonomy and any role in the state affairs as well as any high position in the successive governments.
Dear Mr. President; this people are in dire need of justice.
It is helpful to know that Northern Iraq is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious area.
Unlike the rest of the country, which is predominantly Arabic, there are four major distinct groups in the North; the Kurds, the Turkmens, the Arabs and the Chaldo-Assyrians as well as two smaller groups, the Ezdis and the Shabaks.
Northern Iraq includes the ethnic homelands of Kurdistan, Turkmeneli and Assyria. Therefore, each of those communities would like to have their autonomy and the right of self-determination, in order to protect and promote their language and culture.
None of the groups accept to be dominated by the other, but rather through equal partnership between the majors and a fair share for the rest.
The American administration has told Iraqi minorities that they will bring equality to individuals and communities alike. However, they favored one minority only and gave them every thing they dreamed of and more. On the other hand they gave symbolic positions and representations to the Turkmens and the Chaldo-Assyrians.
Moreover, they let this favored minority to dominate the whole of Northern Iraq by force, despite the will of the other components.
The reality in Northern Iraq is; one ethnic homeland of one ethnic group is expanding against the other ethnic homelands.
Unlike what has been portrayed in the western media, Northern Iraq is not a haven for democracy, peace and stability, but rather, a land of mini dictatorships, ethnic discriminations, ethnic cleansing, countless assassinations, unwarranted arrests and torture. Currently, there is a resistance in Northern Iraq against this imposed hegemony which will escalate into a bloody conflict unless equality between all groups is established.
Dear Mr. President;
Turkmens hope to see the United States adhere to its American values and leave a good legacy behind, for this troubled region.
Empowering and enabling those great values will stop terrorism, ethnic intimidation and the drain of wealth. It will bring peace, stability and cooperation between all ethnic groups in Northern Iraq which will make it a good model for the rest of the Middle East region.
I ask you, as a defender of justice and righteousness, to consider the real situation in Northern Iraq and do the right thing to restore Americas’ rightful image.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Orhan Ketene
Nov. 24, 2008
Dear and Honorable Mr. President:
Congratulations on your historical election as the president of the United States of America. Your victory is the triumph of hope, a hope for a good change and a better future for the United States and the world.
I am writing to you not just because you won an election but because you have good intentions and you stand for justice and equality.
As a Turkmen from Northern Iraq, I ask you to pay attention to the plight of the Turkmens who are the second largest community in Northern Iraq and the third largest one in Iraq.
This peaceful and civilized people have been a part of Iraq’s history for at least fifteen centuries and have contributed a lot to this country. Their monuments throughout the history still stand.
Turkmens have always been friendly with neighboring communities in the region. They have shared their wealth and lands with the others for thousand years.
However, for the last nine decades, they have been unjustifiably prejudiced as disloyal to the country and wrongfully portrayed as the fifth column of a neighboring state. They have been under suspicion and have been victims of assimilation and ethnic cleansing campaigns.
Their population, which is in the category of millions, had been ignored and until today, they have been treated as a small minority by every administration in Iraq. My people were and are marginalized and denied their right of self determination, autonomy and any role in the state affairs as well as any high position in the successive governments.
Dear Mr. President; this people are in dire need of justice.
It is helpful to know that Northern Iraq is a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and multi-religious area.
Unlike the rest of the country, which is predominantly Arabic, there are four major distinct groups in the North; the Kurds, the Turkmens, the Arabs and the Chaldo-Assyrians as well as two smaller groups, the Ezdis and the Shabaks.
Northern Iraq includes the ethnic homelands of Kurdistan, Turkmeneli and Assyria. Therefore, each of those communities would like to have their autonomy and the right of self-determination, in order to protect and promote their language and culture.
None of the groups accept to be dominated by the other, but rather through equal partnership between the majors and a fair share for the rest.
The American administration has told Iraqi minorities that they will bring equality to individuals and communities alike. However, they favored one minority only and gave them every thing they dreamed of and more. On the other hand they gave symbolic positions and representations to the Turkmens and the Chaldo-Assyrians.
Moreover, they let this favored minority to dominate the whole of Northern Iraq by force, despite the will of the other components.
The reality in Northern Iraq is; one ethnic homeland of one ethnic group is expanding against the other ethnic homelands.
Unlike what has been portrayed in the western media, Northern Iraq is not a haven for democracy, peace and stability, but rather, a land of mini dictatorships, ethnic discriminations, ethnic cleansing, countless assassinations, unwarranted arrests and torture. Currently, there is a resistance in Northern Iraq against this imposed hegemony which will escalate into a bloody conflict unless equality between all groups is established.
Dear Mr. President;
Turkmens hope to see the United States adhere to its American values and leave a good legacy behind, for this troubled region.
Empowering and enabling those great values will stop terrorism, ethnic intimidation and the drain of wealth. It will bring peace, stability and cooperation between all ethnic groups in Northern Iraq which will make it a good model for the rest of the Middle East region.
I ask you, as a defender of justice and righteousness, to consider the real situation in Northern Iraq and do the right thing to restore Americas’ rightful image.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Orhan Ketene
lundi 24 novembre 2008
الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج
الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج
(أوروبا ، أمريكا الشمالية ، تركية ، أستراليا)
الموضوع: الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج يدعم رئيس الوزراء السيد نوري المالكي في تأسيس مجالس الإسناد وطلبه تعديل الدستور
بإسم الجمعيات والحركات والمنظمات التركمانية المتواجدة خارج العراق يعلن الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج عن دعمه لرئيس الوزراء السيد نوري المالكي في تأسيسه لمجالس الإسناد التي ستعزز الوحدة الوطنية العراقية وتقويها وتضع حدا للفوضى واللاقانون التي يعاني منها العراق. كذلك يعلن إتحادنا عن دعمه لطلب السيد المالكي في إعطاء السلطة المركزية مزيدا من الصلاحيات التنفيذية من أجل تعزيز القانون والنظام
لا شك أن مثل هذه الخطوات، التي نالت دعما هائلا من المواطنين في وسط وجنوب العراق، ستكون في صالح التركمان الذين عانوا كثيرا ومازالوا يعانون بأيدي الإرهابيين والإنفصاليين. نناشد أبناء شعبنا التركماني وأحزابهم السياسية دعمهم الواضح للسيد رئيس الوزراء في خطوته العظيمة هذه والوقوف إلى جانبه من أجل تطبيقها الواسع والشامل في مناطق التركمان (منطقة تركمن أيلي) والمناطق الأخرى في شمال العراق
لقد سرقت المجموعات الغير قانونية وأمراء الحرب البلد منذ سقوط الديكتاتورية حتى أوصلوه الى حافة الإنهيار والتفتت. مثل هذه المجموعات وقفت بالضد من مبادرة السيد رئيس الوزراء وهددته بالعدول عن هذه المبادرة وذلك بأيجاد العقبات المتعددة في طريقه
نحن التركمان في خارج العراق نتمنى من السيد رئيس الوزراء مواصلة خطوته الشجاعة هذه من أجل توحيد البلد وإعادة القانون والنظام له ونعلن عن إستعدادنا بعمل كل ما بوسعنا من أجل دعم مثل هذه الخطوة
الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج
الهيئة الإدارية
(أوروبا ، أمريكا الشمالية ، تركية ، أستراليا)
الموضوع: الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج يدعم رئيس الوزراء السيد نوري المالكي في تأسيس مجالس الإسناد وطلبه تعديل الدستور
بإسم الجمعيات والحركات والمنظمات التركمانية المتواجدة خارج العراق يعلن الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج عن دعمه لرئيس الوزراء السيد نوري المالكي في تأسيسه لمجالس الإسناد التي ستعزز الوحدة الوطنية العراقية وتقويها وتضع حدا للفوضى واللاقانون التي يعاني منها العراق. كذلك يعلن إتحادنا عن دعمه لطلب السيد المالكي في إعطاء السلطة المركزية مزيدا من الصلاحيات التنفيذية من أجل تعزيز القانون والنظام
لا شك أن مثل هذه الخطوات، التي نالت دعما هائلا من المواطنين في وسط وجنوب العراق، ستكون في صالح التركمان الذين عانوا كثيرا ومازالوا يعانون بأيدي الإرهابيين والإنفصاليين. نناشد أبناء شعبنا التركماني وأحزابهم السياسية دعمهم الواضح للسيد رئيس الوزراء في خطوته العظيمة هذه والوقوف إلى جانبه من أجل تطبيقها الواسع والشامل في مناطق التركمان (منطقة تركمن أيلي) والمناطق الأخرى في شمال العراق
لقد سرقت المجموعات الغير قانونية وأمراء الحرب البلد منذ سقوط الديكتاتورية حتى أوصلوه الى حافة الإنهيار والتفتت. مثل هذه المجموعات وقفت بالضد من مبادرة السيد رئيس الوزراء وهددته بالعدول عن هذه المبادرة وذلك بأيجاد العقبات المتعددة في طريقه
نحن التركمان في خارج العراق نتمنى من السيد رئيس الوزراء مواصلة خطوته الشجاعة هذه من أجل توحيد البلد وإعادة القانون والنظام له ونعلن عن إستعدادنا بعمل كل ما بوسعنا من أجل دعم مثل هذه الخطوة
الإتحاد التركماني في الخارج
الهيئة الإدارية
Union of Diaspora Turkmens - Communique
UNION OF DIASPORA TURKMENS (UDT)
(N. America, Europe, Turkey, Australia)
(N. America, Europe, Turkey, Australia)
Subject: UDT, supports Prime Minister al-Maliki’s establishment of Support (Isnad) Assemblies and his request for wider legislative authorities.
In the name of the Turkmen associations, movements and committees outside Iraq, UDT, supports Prime Minister al-Maliki’s establishment of Support (Isnad) Assemblies which will strengthen national unity and put an end to the anarchy and chaos in the country.
UDT also supports Prime ministers’ request for wider legislative authorities in order to increase the authority of the central government and get the country under law and order.
Such a move, which gained a great support from the people, in Central and Southern Iraq, is undoubtedly in the interest of the Turkmens who suffered a lot and are still suffering at the hands of the terrorists and separatists. We ask our Turkmen people and its political parties to clearly support the Prime Minister in this great initiative and rally behind him to apply it in the widest scale possible in Turkmeneli and other parts of Northern Iraq.
Since the fall of the dictatorship in Iraq, warlords and thugs, have robbed the country and partitioned it to the level of destruction. Such a people have opposed the Prime Minister in his initiative and threatened to stop him by putting various obstacles in his way.
We as Turkmens around the world would like the Prime Minister to continue in his courageous attempt to unite the country and restore law and order. We are ready to do our best.
Union of Diaspora Turkmens
Executive Board
DIŞ TÜRKMENLER BİRLİĞİ (DTB)
DIŞ TÜRKMENLER BİRLİĞİ (DTB)
(Avrupa, K. Amerika, Türkiye, Avustralya)
(Avrupa, K. Amerika, Türkiye, Avustralya)
Konu: DTB, Başbakan Malikinin Destek (Isnad) Meclislerini kurması ve Anayasa değişikliği istemini desteklemektedir.
Irak dışındaki Türkmen dernekleri, hareketleri ve komiteleri adına, Dış Türkmenler Birliği (DTB), Iraktaki milli birliği güçlendirecek, kanunsuzluk ve kaos ortamına son verecek olan Destek (Isnad) Meclislerinin kurulması ve merkezi hükümetin yetkilerini genişletecek olan anayasa düzeltme istemini candan desteklemektedir.
Irakın orta ve güney bölgelerinde hızla yayılan bu uygulama, halkın desteğini geniş ölçüde almıştır. Böyle bir yaklaşım şüphesiz ki terroristlerin ve ayrılıkçılardan çok zarar gören Türkmenlerin lehinedir.
Türkmen halkımızı ve siyasi partilerimizi bu konuda açıkca tavır koymalarını ve bu uygulamanın Türkmenelinde ve Kuzey Irakın diğer bölgelerinde uygulanması için desteklemelerini bekliyoruz.
Irakta diktatörlük yıkıldığından beri, kanunsuz ve yetkisiz kişiler ve guruplar ülkeyi soymuş, parçalamış ve yıkıma doğru sürüklemiştir. Bu guruplar Başbakan Malikinin bu insiyatifine hemen karşı çıkmışlar ve tehditler savurarak engellemeye çalışıyorlar.
Başbakanın bu tehditlere ve engellemelere aldırış etmemesi ve doğru yolunda devam etmesini istiyor, Irak dışında ve dünyaya yayılan Türkmenler olarak ona her türlü desteği vermeğe hazır olduğumuzu bildiririz.
Dış Türkmenler Birliği
Yönetim Kurulu
dimanche 23 novembre 2008
Kurdish warlords importing arms from Bulgaria
These weapons will be used by the Kurdish militias against the Turkmens, Assyrians and Arabs who are opposed to the Kurdification of the north of Iraq.
The U.S. pretending they didn't know about it is bullshit!!! This is all part of the zionist -neocon plan to weaken and divide Iraq.
Kurds in N. Iraq Receive Arms From Bulgaria
3 Planeloads of Munitions Worry Officials in Baghdad
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 23, 2008; A01
BAGHDAD -- Kurdish officials this fall took delivery of three planeloads of small arms and ammunition imported from Bulgaria, three U.S. military officials said, an acquisition that occurred outside the weapons procurement procedures of Iraq's central government.
The large quantity of weapons and the timing of the shipment alarmed U.S. officials, who have grown concerned about the prospect of an armed confrontation between Iraqi Kurds and the government at a time when the Kurds are attempting to expand their control over parts of northern Iraq.
The weapons arrived in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah in September on three C-130 cargo planes, according to the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Kurdish officials declined to answer questions about the shipments but released the following statement: "The Kurdistan Regional Government continues to be on the forefront of the war on terrorism in Iraq. With that continued threat, nothing in the constitution prevents the KRG from obtaining defense materials for its regional defense."
Iraq's ethnic Kurds maintain an autonomous region that comprises three of the country's 18 provinces. In recent months, the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad, which includes some Kurds in prominent positions, has accused Kurdish leaders of attempting to expand their territory by deploying their militia, known as pesh merga, to areas south of the autonomous region. Among other things, the Kurds and Iraq's government are at odds over control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which lies outside the autonomous region, and over how Iraq's oil revenue ought to be distributed.
The Kurds of northern Iraq have run their affairs with increasing autonomy since 1991, when U.S. and British forces began enforcing a no-fly zone in northern Iraq to protect the region from President Saddam Hussein's military. The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 sparked concern that Iraqi Kurds would seek independence, but the Kurds have insisted that they wish to remain part of a federal Iraq.
Neighboring countries with large Kurdish minorities, including Turkey and Iran, have said they would oppose the emergence of an independent Kurdistan, as the autonomous region is known.
Iraq's interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, said in an interview that central government officials did not authorize the purchase of weapons from Bulgaria. He said such an acquisition would constitute a "violation" of Iraqi law because only the Ministries of Interior and Defense are authorized to import weapons.
Experts on Iraq's constitution said the document does not clearly say whether provincial officials have the authority to import weapons. However, Iraqi and U.S. officials said the Ministries of Interior and Defense are the only entities authorized to import weapons. The Defense Ministry provides weapons to the Iraqi army, and the Interior Ministry procures arms for the country's police forces.
The Iraqi government has acquired the vast majority of its weapons through the Foreign Military Sales program, a U.S.-run procurement system, Brig. Gen. Charles D. Luckey, who assists the Iraqi government with weapons purchases, said Saturday. He said he knew of no instances in which provincial authorities had independently purchased weapons from abroad.
With thousands of American military officials involved in the training of Iraq's security forces, there is little the U.S. government does not know about weapons that are legally imported to Iraq. The shipments from Bulgaria in September caught the American military off guard, the three officials said. They first learned of the shipments from a source in Bulgaria, the officials said.
The three said they did not know whether U.S. officials had confronted Kurdish leaders about the shipments or alerted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
"Yes, the Kurds have this autonomous region and they're authorized to keep the pesh," one of the officials said, referring to the militia. "But arming themselves and bringing in weapons stealthily like that -- if I were the Iraqi government, I'd be pretty concerned."
While violence in Iraq has decreased markedly in recent months, political tension is rising as Iraqi leaders gear up for provincial and national elections scheduled to take place next year, and as they prepare for an era in which the U.S. military will have a smaller presence there.
Of the primary fault lines -- which include tension between Sunnis and Shiites and rivalry among Shiite political parties -- the rift between Kurds and the Arab-dominated Iraqi government has become a top concern in recent months. Senior government officials have engaged in a war of words, and Iraqi army and pesh merga units have come close to clashing.
"You could easily have a huge eruption of violence in the north," said Kenneth B. Katzman, a Middle East specialist at the Congressional Research Service in Washington. "Nothing having to do with the Kurds is resolved."
Because Arab Sunnis largely boycotted the 2005 election, Kurds obtained disproportionate political power in key provinces such as Tamim, which includes Kirkuk, and Nineveh. Both abut the Kurdish autonomous region. Kurds also control 75 of the 275 seats in parliament.
This year, violence broke out in Kirkuk amid political squabbling over an Arab proposal that seats on the Tamim provincial council should be divided evenly among ethnic Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. In the end, Iraqi lawmakers had to shelve plans to hold provincial elections in Tamim because the sides were unable to reach a deal.
In August, U.S. officials narrowly averted an armed confrontation between an Iraqi army unit and pesh merga fighters in the town of Khanaqin, in Diyala province.
In recent weeks, Maliki and Kurdish leaders have exchanged sharp words over Maliki's creation of so-called support councils. Maliki has said the councils, which are made up of pro-government tribal leaders, are the central government's eyes and ears in provinces. But Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani and other Iraqi leaders have accused the prime minister of using the councils to bolster Maliki's influence in areas where he has little political support. In a recent news conference, Barzani said Maliki was "playing with fire."
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd, recently sent Maliki a letter saying the money being spent on councils should go to the country's armed forces.
The pesh merga, which began as a militia controlled by powerful Kurdish families, fought Iraqi troops when Hussein was in power. Since the 2003 invasion, its primary role has been to patrol predominantly Kurdish areas in the north. However, pesh merga units were deployed to the northern city of Mosul in 2004 to help quell an insurgent uprising, and others were dispatched to Baghdad as part of the 2007 buildup of U.S. troops.
Recently, the Iraqi government has refrained from using pesh merga forces outside of the Kurdish region and has taken steps to replace predominantly Kurdish forces with Sunni and Shiite soldiers in Nineveh, one of the most violent areas in Iraq.
Central government officials recently bristled at Barzani's offer to allow U.S. troops to establish bases in the Kurdish autonomous region, saying the regional government had no authority to make such an overture, especially as Iraqi officials are calling for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops.
"There is a lot of tension," Kurdish parliament member Mahmoud Othman said. "Maliki and his administration are accusing the Kurdish authorities of violating the constitution. And the Kurds are accusing Maliki of violating the constitution."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/22/AR2008112202297_pf.html
The U.S. pretending they didn't know about it is bullshit!!! This is all part of the zionist -neocon plan to weaken and divide Iraq.
Kurds in N. Iraq Receive Arms From Bulgaria
3 Planeloads of Munitions Worry Officials in Baghdad
By Ernesto Londoño
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, November 23, 2008; A01
BAGHDAD -- Kurdish officials this fall took delivery of three planeloads of small arms and ammunition imported from Bulgaria, three U.S. military officials said, an acquisition that occurred outside the weapons procurement procedures of Iraq's central government.
The large quantity of weapons and the timing of the shipment alarmed U.S. officials, who have grown concerned about the prospect of an armed confrontation between Iraqi Kurds and the government at a time when the Kurds are attempting to expand their control over parts of northern Iraq.
The weapons arrived in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah in September on three C-130 cargo planes, according to the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Kurdish officials declined to answer questions about the shipments but released the following statement: "The Kurdistan Regional Government continues to be on the forefront of the war on terrorism in Iraq. With that continued threat, nothing in the constitution prevents the KRG from obtaining defense materials for its regional defense."
Iraq's ethnic Kurds maintain an autonomous region that comprises three of the country's 18 provinces. In recent months, the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad, which includes some Kurds in prominent positions, has accused Kurdish leaders of attempting to expand their territory by deploying their militia, known as pesh merga, to areas south of the autonomous region. Among other things, the Kurds and Iraq's government are at odds over control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which lies outside the autonomous region, and over how Iraq's oil revenue ought to be distributed.
The Kurds of northern Iraq have run their affairs with increasing autonomy since 1991, when U.S. and British forces began enforcing a no-fly zone in northern Iraq to protect the region from President Saddam Hussein's military. The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 sparked concern that Iraqi Kurds would seek independence, but the Kurds have insisted that they wish to remain part of a federal Iraq.
Neighboring countries with large Kurdish minorities, including Turkey and Iran, have said they would oppose the emergence of an independent Kurdistan, as the autonomous region is known.
Iraq's interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, said in an interview that central government officials did not authorize the purchase of weapons from Bulgaria. He said such an acquisition would constitute a "violation" of Iraqi law because only the Ministries of Interior and Defense are authorized to import weapons.
Experts on Iraq's constitution said the document does not clearly say whether provincial officials have the authority to import weapons. However, Iraqi and U.S. officials said the Ministries of Interior and Defense are the only entities authorized to import weapons. The Defense Ministry provides weapons to the Iraqi army, and the Interior Ministry procures arms for the country's police forces.
The Iraqi government has acquired the vast majority of its weapons through the Foreign Military Sales program, a U.S.-run procurement system, Brig. Gen. Charles D. Luckey, who assists the Iraqi government with weapons purchases, said Saturday. He said he knew of no instances in which provincial authorities had independently purchased weapons from abroad.
With thousands of American military officials involved in the training of Iraq's security forces, there is little the U.S. government does not know about weapons that are legally imported to Iraq. The shipments from Bulgaria in September caught the American military off guard, the three officials said. They first learned of the shipments from a source in Bulgaria, the officials said.
The three said they did not know whether U.S. officials had confronted Kurdish leaders about the shipments or alerted Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.
"Yes, the Kurds have this autonomous region and they're authorized to keep the pesh," one of the officials said, referring to the militia. "But arming themselves and bringing in weapons stealthily like that -- if I were the Iraqi government, I'd be pretty concerned."
While violence in Iraq has decreased markedly in recent months, political tension is rising as Iraqi leaders gear up for provincial and national elections scheduled to take place next year, and as they prepare for an era in which the U.S. military will have a smaller presence there.
Of the primary fault lines -- which include tension between Sunnis and Shiites and rivalry among Shiite political parties -- the rift between Kurds and the Arab-dominated Iraqi government has become a top concern in recent months. Senior government officials have engaged in a war of words, and Iraqi army and pesh merga units have come close to clashing.
"You could easily have a huge eruption of violence in the north," said Kenneth B. Katzman, a Middle East specialist at the Congressional Research Service in Washington. "Nothing having to do with the Kurds is resolved."
Because Arab Sunnis largely boycotted the 2005 election, Kurds obtained disproportionate political power in key provinces such as Tamim, which includes Kirkuk, and Nineveh. Both abut the Kurdish autonomous region. Kurds also control 75 of the 275 seats in parliament.
This year, violence broke out in Kirkuk amid political squabbling over an Arab proposal that seats on the Tamim provincial council should be divided evenly among ethnic Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens. In the end, Iraqi lawmakers had to shelve plans to hold provincial elections in Tamim because the sides were unable to reach a deal.
In August, U.S. officials narrowly averted an armed confrontation between an Iraqi army unit and pesh merga fighters in the town of Khanaqin, in Diyala province.
In recent weeks, Maliki and Kurdish leaders have exchanged sharp words over Maliki's creation of so-called support councils. Maliki has said the councils, which are made up of pro-government tribal leaders, are the central government's eyes and ears in provinces. But Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani and other Iraqi leaders have accused the prime minister of using the councils to bolster Maliki's influence in areas where he has little political support. In a recent news conference, Barzani said Maliki was "playing with fire."
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, who is a Kurd, recently sent Maliki a letter saying the money being spent on councils should go to the country's armed forces.
The pesh merga, which began as a militia controlled by powerful Kurdish families, fought Iraqi troops when Hussein was in power. Since the 2003 invasion, its primary role has been to patrol predominantly Kurdish areas in the north. However, pesh merga units were deployed to the northern city of Mosul in 2004 to help quell an insurgent uprising, and others were dispatched to Baghdad as part of the 2007 buildup of U.S. troops.
Recently, the Iraqi government has refrained from using pesh merga forces outside of the Kurdish region and has taken steps to replace predominantly Kurdish forces with Sunni and Shiite soldiers in Nineveh, one of the most violent areas in Iraq.
Central government officials recently bristled at Barzani's offer to allow U.S. troops to establish bases in the Kurdish autonomous region, saying the regional government had no authority to make such an overture, especially as Iraqi officials are calling for a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops.
"There is a lot of tension," Kurdish parliament member Mahmoud Othman said. "Maliki and his administration are accusing the Kurdish authorities of violating the constitution. And the Kurds are accusing Maliki of violating the constitution."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/22/AR2008112202297_pf.html
samedi 22 novembre 2008
Thousands of Iraqis protest against SOFA
Protesters dragged down and burned an effigy of War Criminal bush in Firdos Square BaghdadExtract of article published in LA Times
Babylon and Beyond blogShiite cleric Muqtada Sadr's call to followers to hold a mass prayer and protest in central Baghdad to denounce the new Status of Forces Agreement reached between U.S. and Iraqi negotiators brought tens of thousands of people swarming into central Baghdad's Firdos Square on Friday. This is none other than the place where U.S. forces helped Iraqis joyously pull down a giant statue of Saddam Hussein back in April 2003.
This time, the crowd gathered at the square was just as frenzied, but there were no American forces in sight. And this time, the protesters dragged down something very different: an effigy of President Bush. Their anger is over the SOFA, which would keep U.S. forces in Iraq through December 2011. That's far too long, according to the anti-U.S. cleric Sadr, and according to those in the crowd Friday.
See:
vendredi 21 novembre 2008
The EU's failed asylum rules
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/20/opinion/edfrelick.php
The EU's failed asylum rules
By Bill Frelick
Thursday, November 20, 2008
ATHENS:
It's easy to see why Iraqis overwhelmingly sought asylum in Sweden last year. The country had granted 91 percent of their asylum requests the year before. But why would the next-largest number apply in Greece, which had a zero approval rate for Iraqis? And why did relatively few Iraqis, the largest group of asylum seekers in the European Union, seek asylum in Britain, with troops on the ground in Iraq - or Germany, with Europe's largest population and strongest economy, or other EU countries?
EU asylum rules provide the answer: Many Iraqis lodged their asylum claims in Greece because they had no other choice. Because of its location, Greece is the most favorable entry point to the EU for Iraqis. And the EU system, known as Dublin II, dictates that claims are generally assessed in the first EU state a person enters.
An Iraqi Kurd from Kirkuk told me of his predicament: "I wanted to go to another country to seek asylum, but a friend told me that because they took my fingerprints, they would send me back to Athens. I have now been here a month without papers. Now I am in a hole. I can't go out. I can't stay. Every day I think I made a mistake to leave my country. I want to go back, but how can I? I would be killed if I go back. But they treat you like a dog here. I have nothing. No rights. No friends."
The Dublin system fails to consider the legitimate interest asylum seekers have in choosing where to apply and unfairly allocates the burden of processing claims to the states on the EU's external frontiers.
Left nearly alone to bear the Iraqi refugee burden in Europe, both Sweden and Greece have reacted in ways that are as unfortunate as they are predictable. Sweden has become much less generous in offering asylum. By the first trimester of 2008, it was granting only 25 percent of requests. The result? The number of Iraqi asylum applicants in Sweden fell by half in the first half of 2008.
Greece has taken the approach, documented in a Human Rights Watch report to be released next week, of systematically rounding up and detaining migrants in dirty, overcrowded conditions in the border region with Turkey and forcibly and secretly expelling them to Turkey. Coast Guard officials push migrants from Greek territorial waters, sometimes puncturing inflatable boats or otherwise disabling their vessels. For those managing to gain a foothold in Greece, the authorities block access to asylum procedures and deny nearly all asylum claims.
A 34-year-old Iraqi Turkmen from Kerkuk who said that he made 10 attempts to cross into Greece before succeeding provides a typical example among the scores of interviews collected by Human Rights Watch: "One time I crossed the river into Greece and arrived in Komotini. They put us in jail for five days and then took us to the river and pushed us back. We were 60 persons. They put us in a small river boat with a motor in groups of 10. They did it in the middle of the night. It was raining hard and the Greek police started beating us to make us move more quickly. I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat, and they beat him and threw him in the river. They beat us with police clubs to get us to go on the boat."
The Turkish border authorities likewise abuse migrants, detaining those pushed back by Greece in degrading conditions. These migrants have no real opportunity to seek asylum in Turkey and are often detained indefinitely. Turkey continues to return Iraqis to Iraq without giving them a genuine chance to seek protection.
As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has urged, EU states should suspend transfers of asylum seekers back to Greece and examine their claims themselves. They should resume such transfers only when Greece meets EU standards on detention, police conduct and asylum access, and when Greece stops forcibly returning people who would face inhuman and degrading treatment in Turkey or persecution in their countries of origin.
A more equitable and better-managed approach by the EU would reduce the burden on Sweden and Greece and better protect Iraqi refugees. But the EU's failures in equitable burden-sharing do not relieve Greece of its responsibility to treat people humanely and its obligation not to return refugees and asylum seekers to a risk of degrading treatment, persecution, or worse.
Bill Frelick is the refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch and author of "Stuck in a Revolving Door: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greek/Turkey Entrance to the European Union."
The EU's failed asylum rules
By Bill Frelick
Thursday, November 20, 2008
ATHENS:
It's easy to see why Iraqis overwhelmingly sought asylum in Sweden last year. The country had granted 91 percent of their asylum requests the year before. But why would the next-largest number apply in Greece, which had a zero approval rate for Iraqis? And why did relatively few Iraqis, the largest group of asylum seekers in the European Union, seek asylum in Britain, with troops on the ground in Iraq - or Germany, with Europe's largest population and strongest economy, or other EU countries?
EU asylum rules provide the answer: Many Iraqis lodged their asylum claims in Greece because they had no other choice. Because of its location, Greece is the most favorable entry point to the EU for Iraqis. And the EU system, known as Dublin II, dictates that claims are generally assessed in the first EU state a person enters.
An Iraqi Kurd from Kirkuk told me of his predicament: "I wanted to go to another country to seek asylum, but a friend told me that because they took my fingerprints, they would send me back to Athens. I have now been here a month without papers. Now I am in a hole. I can't go out. I can't stay. Every day I think I made a mistake to leave my country. I want to go back, but how can I? I would be killed if I go back. But they treat you like a dog here. I have nothing. No rights. No friends."
The Dublin system fails to consider the legitimate interest asylum seekers have in choosing where to apply and unfairly allocates the burden of processing claims to the states on the EU's external frontiers.
Left nearly alone to bear the Iraqi refugee burden in Europe, both Sweden and Greece have reacted in ways that are as unfortunate as they are predictable. Sweden has become much less generous in offering asylum. By the first trimester of 2008, it was granting only 25 percent of requests. The result? The number of Iraqi asylum applicants in Sweden fell by half in the first half of 2008.
Greece has taken the approach, documented in a Human Rights Watch report to be released next week, of systematically rounding up and detaining migrants in dirty, overcrowded conditions in the border region with Turkey and forcibly and secretly expelling them to Turkey. Coast Guard officials push migrants from Greek territorial waters, sometimes puncturing inflatable boats or otherwise disabling their vessels. For those managing to gain a foothold in Greece, the authorities block access to asylum procedures and deny nearly all asylum claims.
A 34-year-old Iraqi Turkmen from Kerkuk who said that he made 10 attempts to cross into Greece before succeeding provides a typical example among the scores of interviews collected by Human Rights Watch: "One time I crossed the river into Greece and arrived in Komotini. They put us in jail for five days and then took us to the river and pushed us back. We were 60 persons. They put us in a small river boat with a motor in groups of 10. They did it in the middle of the night. It was raining hard and the Greek police started beating us to make us move more quickly. I saw one man who tried to refuse to go on the boat, and they beat him and threw him in the river. They beat us with police clubs to get us to go on the boat."
The Turkish border authorities likewise abuse migrants, detaining those pushed back by Greece in degrading conditions. These migrants have no real opportunity to seek asylum in Turkey and are often detained indefinitely. Turkey continues to return Iraqis to Iraq without giving them a genuine chance to seek protection.
As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has urged, EU states should suspend transfers of asylum seekers back to Greece and examine their claims themselves. They should resume such transfers only when Greece meets EU standards on detention, police conduct and asylum access, and when Greece stops forcibly returning people who would face inhuman and degrading treatment in Turkey or persecution in their countries of origin.
A more equitable and better-managed approach by the EU would reduce the burden on Sweden and Greece and better protect Iraqi refugees. But the EU's failures in equitable burden-sharing do not relieve Greece of its responsibility to treat people humanely and its obligation not to return refugees and asylum seekers to a risk of degrading treatment, persecution, or worse.
Bill Frelick is the refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch and author of "Stuck in a Revolving Door: Iraqis and Other Asylum Seekers and Migrants at the Greek/Turkey Entrance to the European Union."
Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation denounces arbitrary detentions of Turkmens in Kurdish prisons
To the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
8-14 avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
E-mail: urgent-action@ohchr.org
Date: 12th October 2007
No.: App.52-J1207
Subject: Urgent Appeal of Arbitrary Detention of Mr. Lokman Najem Ahmad
The Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation, known as ‘SOITM’, is an institute with a focus on human rights and democracy. It maintains regular contact with the Middle East academics, international press, policy makers and the Human Rights organizations to represent the Turkmen of Iraq and assist the democratization process and the spread of civil society culture in Iraq.
This communication relates to serious and ongoing concerns about the arbitrary detention of member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front of the Mosul Region, Mr. L. N. Ahmad.
On 9 July 2007, the Kurdish security forces arrested Mr. L. N. Ahmad at the Khabur Frontier Door between Turkey and Iraq. No warrant or decision from the public authorities was given at his arrest nor given to the lawyer in charge of the case.
He remained in the Kurdish Security Prison for about a month. During his interrogation, which lasted for about a month, he recounted the continuous exposure to persecution by cables and hoses on his body and of the use of boxes on his face.
Thereafter, Mr. L. N. Ahmad was transferred to al- Zarga prison in Duhok and he is still in this prison. In al-Zarga prison his family was allowed weekly visit him.
Mr. Ahmad’s family is concerned about the handling of the trial of Mr. Ahmad due on the 25th October 2007 as the lawyers out of three Iraqi governorates under Kurdish Administration (Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymania) are not allowed by the Kurdish Authorities to handle trials in the courts. Henceforth, Mr. Ahmad’s family referred to a Kurdish Lawyer from Duhok city to handle the case, but are concerned about his attention to the case.
Until now, no official documents have been issued from the Kurdish Authorities about the arrest, the detention and the procedures.
The Turkmen are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after the Kurds and Arabs. The number of Turkmen is estimated at more than 10% of the Iraqi population. They live in the provinces of north and middle of Iraq: Mosul, Erbil, Kerkuk, Salah al-Din, Diyala, Baghdad and Kut. They are distinct in language and culture from both their neighbors, the Arabs and Kurds. Yet, the Turkmen are continuously denied political rights and systematically faced assimilation. Iraq has been a fertile ground for arbitrary detentions, and the Turkmen have suffered tremendously from this trend.
SOITM condemns the blatant disregard of human rights, including the frequent use of arbitrary detention, in Iraq and Turkmen regions and therefore hereby appeals to Your organization to:
- Urge the Kurdish authorities, Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi government authorities in Baghdad to free Mr. L. N. Ahmad until any form of legitimate and recognized form of warrant or decision explaining the detention is offered;
- Closely observe the processes of the trial of Mr. Ahmad on the 25 October 2007 in Duhok, Iraq to ensure a fair trial according to international legal standards;
- Urge all authorities in the region to immediately halt further persecution of the Turkmen community; and
- Remind all authorities in the region of their obligations under internationally recognised standards of Human Rights.
I hope you will be able to offer due consideration to the request contained in this letter, and I take this opportunity to offer You the assurances of our highest appreciation.
Respectfully,
Dr. Sheth Jerjis
Chairman SOITM
Please click on the link below to read the report in full:
http://www.turkmen.nl/1A_soitm/Lokman1.htm
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
United Nations Office at Geneva
8-14 avenue de la Paix, 1211 Geneva 10,
Switzerland
E-mail: urgent-action@ohchr.org
Date: 12th October 2007
No.: App.52-J1207
Subject: Urgent Appeal of Arbitrary Detention of Mr. Lokman Najem Ahmad
The Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation, known as ‘SOITM’, is an institute with a focus on human rights and democracy. It maintains regular contact with the Middle East academics, international press, policy makers and the Human Rights organizations to represent the Turkmen of Iraq and assist the democratization process and the spread of civil society culture in Iraq.
This communication relates to serious and ongoing concerns about the arbitrary detention of member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front of the Mosul Region, Mr. L. N. Ahmad.
On 9 July 2007, the Kurdish security forces arrested Mr. L. N. Ahmad at the Khabur Frontier Door between Turkey and Iraq. No warrant or decision from the public authorities was given at his arrest nor given to the lawyer in charge of the case.
He remained in the Kurdish Security Prison for about a month. During his interrogation, which lasted for about a month, he recounted the continuous exposure to persecution by cables and hoses on his body and of the use of boxes on his face.
Thereafter, Mr. L. N. Ahmad was transferred to al- Zarga prison in Duhok and he is still in this prison. In al-Zarga prison his family was allowed weekly visit him.
Mr. Ahmad’s family is concerned about the handling of the trial of Mr. Ahmad due on the 25th October 2007 as the lawyers out of three Iraqi governorates under Kurdish Administration (Erbil, Duhok and Sulaymania) are not allowed by the Kurdish Authorities to handle trials in the courts. Henceforth, Mr. Ahmad’s family referred to a Kurdish Lawyer from Duhok city to handle the case, but are concerned about his attention to the case.
Until now, no official documents have been issued from the Kurdish Authorities about the arrest, the detention and the procedures.
The Turkmen are the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after the Kurds and Arabs. The number of Turkmen is estimated at more than 10% of the Iraqi population. They live in the provinces of north and middle of Iraq: Mosul, Erbil, Kerkuk, Salah al-Din, Diyala, Baghdad and Kut. They are distinct in language and culture from both their neighbors, the Arabs and Kurds. Yet, the Turkmen are continuously denied political rights and systematically faced assimilation. Iraq has been a fertile ground for arbitrary detentions, and the Turkmen have suffered tremendously from this trend.
SOITM condemns the blatant disregard of human rights, including the frequent use of arbitrary detention, in Iraq and Turkmen regions and therefore hereby appeals to Your organization to:
- Urge the Kurdish authorities, Coalition Provisional Authority and Iraqi government authorities in Baghdad to free Mr. L. N. Ahmad until any form of legitimate and recognized form of warrant or decision explaining the detention is offered;
- Closely observe the processes of the trial of Mr. Ahmad on the 25 October 2007 in Duhok, Iraq to ensure a fair trial according to international legal standards;
- Urge all authorities in the region to immediately halt further persecution of the Turkmen community; and
- Remind all authorities in the region of their obligations under internationally recognised standards of Human Rights.
I hope you will be able to offer due consideration to the request contained in this letter, and I take this opportunity to offer You the assurances of our highest appreciation.
Respectfully,
Dr. Sheth Jerjis
Chairman SOITM
Please click on the link below to read the report in full:
http://www.turkmen.nl/1A_soitm/Lokman1.htm
jeudi 20 novembre 2008
Europeana, Europe's digital library was launched today
Today the European Digital Library - Europeana - was launched in Brussels, Belgium
Europe’s digital library, museum and archive
http://dev.europeana.eu/home.php
20 November 2008 - Today the European Digital Library - Europeana - was launched in the presence of José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Christine Albanel, French Minister of Culture and Communication, Cultural Ministers from other Member States and representatives of European cultural institutions, in Brussels, Belgium.
More news...
http://www.acrosslimits.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98:now-online-qeuropeanaq-europes-digital-library&catid=2:acrossnewsflashes&Itemid=9
Europe’s digital library, museum and archive
http://dev.europeana.eu/home.php
20 November 2008 - Today the European Digital Library - Europeana - was launched in the presence of José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media, Christine Albanel, French Minister of Culture and Communication, Cultural Ministers from other Member States and representatives of European cultural institutions, in Brussels, Belgium.
More news...
http://www.acrosslimits.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=98:now-online-qeuropeanaq-europes-digital-library&catid=2:acrossnewsflashes&Itemid=9
mercredi 19 novembre 2008
ITF President Dr. Ergeç meets with UN Representatives and Political Advisor of US Embassy in Baghdad
د. أركيج يلتقي مع مسؤولي الامم المتحده والمستشار السياسي للسفاره الامريكيه في بغداد
ITC MEDIA - BAGHDAD
اجتمع الدكتور سعد الدين اركيج رئيس الجبهة التركمانية العراقية و عضو مجلس النواب و النائب التركماني من كتلة الائتلاف العراقي الموحد السيد محمد مهدي البياتي في بغداد مع مسؤولين في الأمم المتحدة
و تمت خلال اللقاءات مناقشة سبل تطبيق المادة 23 (24) من قانون انتخاب مجالس المحافظات و الخاصة بكركوك ,و سبل مساعدة لجنة تقصي الحقائق المتشكلة استنادا الى المادة 23 لتطبيق المادة اعلاه بصورة عادلة و شفافة بما يضمن حقوق جميع مكونات كركوك دون تفضيل أي مكون عن آخر لأي سبب كان .و أكد الدكتور أركيج ان معاونة المنظمة للشعب العراقي بخصوص هذه المادة بالشكل المطلوب سيخلق التفاؤل بالاستقرار و مستقبل كركوك و العراق
ومن جهة أخرى التقى الدكتور اركيج مع المستشار السياسي في السفارة الأمريكية و تم خلال اللقاء بحث موضوع الاتفاقية الأمنية بين العراق و امريكا و كيفية تنفيذ المادة 23. ووضع امام المسؤول الأمريكي حقيقة الوضع في كركوك و محاولة طرف واحد من خلال القوة السيطرة على الوضع في كركوك مما يخلق مشاكل و اشكالات ، ووضع امامه ايضا التجاوزات التي حدثت و تحدث في كركوك. و اكد آركيج في لقاء مع المستشار السياسي في السفارة البريطانية بأن المادة 23 تشكل خارطة طريق لحل قضية كركوك في حال تطبيقها كما يجب و رفع التجاوزات التي بدأت في 2003 و ما تزال مستمرة
اجتماع لجنة تقصي الحقائق الخاصة بكركوك
بغداد/ ITC media
اكد الدكتور سعد الدين آركيج، رئيس الجبهة التركمانية و عضو مجلس النواب، بأن اللجنة قد اجتمعت لوضع هيكليتها و ميزانيتها و شؤونها الأمنية. و تم رفع بنود الاجتماع الى هيئة رئاسة مجلس النواب و منها الى مجلس رئاسة الوزراء لتلبية الأمور العاجلة و البدء في العمل. و يذكر ان اللجنة التي تشكلت استنادا الى المادة 23 من قانون انتخاب مجالس المحافظات و تضم في عضويتها نائبين لكل من العرب و التركمان و الأكراد و نائبا عن المسيحيين، و هم النواب الدكتور سعد الدين آركيج و محمد مهدي البياتي (عن التركمان) و الدكتور محمد تميم و عمر الجبوري (عن العرب) و خالد شواني و سرتيب كاكايي (عن الأكراد) و يونادام كنا (عن المسيحيين). و سيعين اعضاء الجنة الخبراء و الموظفين بغية انجاحه مهمة اللجنة
mardi 18 novembre 2008
The Iraq War: a damnable crime against humanity
Latuff: White washing War CrimesVigilante Man: Crime Without End, Amen
Written by Chris Floyd
The Iraq War? Illegal. Who says so? The former top law lord of America's main ally in the invasion and occupation. What does it mean? It means that the whole mass-murdering operation was, has been, and remains a damnable crime against humanity by any and all legal standards, even those of the invading countries themselves. (To say nothing of the moral abomination involved).
And from this, what follows? Nothing. No prosecutions. No justice for the victims, no punishment for the murder bosses -- some of whom are already slithering across the bloodsoaked corridors of the imperial courts to join the circles of power again.
The rest are leisurely packing their bags for a cozy, coddled, easy retirement -- while their corporate cronies continue to feast on the blood money of the soon-to-be-augmented war machine.
But who cares about all that! Wonder what kind of puppy the Obamas are gonna get? Wonder what they're gonna name it? And do ya think Obama really will get the NCAA to bring in a football playoff? Glorioski, ain't it a grand time to be alive?
From the Guardian:
One of Britain's most authoritative judicial figures last night delivered a blistering attack on the invasion of Iraq, describing it as a serious violation of international law, and accusing Britain and the US of acting like a "world vigilante". Lord Bingham, in his first major speech since retiring as the senior law lord, rejected the then attorney general's defence of the 2003 invasion as fundamentally flawed.
Contradicting head-on Lord Goldsmith's advice that the invasion was lawful, Bingham stated: "It was not plain that Iraq had failed to comply in a manner justifying resort to force and there were no strong factual grounds or hard evidence to show that it had." Adding his weight to the body of international legal opinion opposed to the invasion, Bingham said that to argue, as the British government had done, that Britain and the US could unilaterally decide that Iraq had broken UN resolutions "passes belief".
Governments were bound by international law as much as by their domestic laws, he said. "The current ministerial code," he added "binding on British ministers, requires them as an overarching duty to 'comply with the law, including international law and treaty obligations'."...
Addressing the British Institute of International and Comparative Law last night, Bingham said: "If I am right that the invasion of Iraq by the US, the UK, and some other states was unauthorised by the security council there was, of course, a serious violation of international law and the rule of law."For the effect of acting unilaterally was to undermine the foundation on which the post-1945 consensus had been constructed: the prohibition of force (save in self-defence, or perhaps, to avert an impending humanitarian catastrophe) unless formally authorised by the nations of the world empowered to make collective decisions in the security council..."The moment a state treated the rules of international law as binding on others but not on itself, the compact on which the law rested was broken, Bingham argued. Quoting a comment made by a leading academic lawyer, he added: "It is, as has been said, 'the difference between the role of world policeman and world vigilante'."
http://www.chris-floyd.com/component/content/article/3/1646-vigilante-man-crime-without-end-amen.html
dimanche 16 novembre 2008
Iraq cabinet approves troop agreement with U.S.
By Adam Ashton McClatchy Newspapers
BAGHDAD — Iraq's cabinet today approved a security pact that calls for Americans to withdraw from the country within three years. That action sets up a final vote on the agreement in Iraq's parliament.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built political momentum for the agreement through the weekend, declaring his support and helping persuade leading Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani to give it the green light on Saturday.
Representatives of Maliki's Dawa party framed the deal as a means to end America’s occupation of Iraq while phasing out the assistance coalition forces provide. He reportedly bargained for concessions late last week before endorsing it Friday.
The agreement faces an uncertain outlook in parliament.
Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has urged Iraqis to demonstrate against the pact. His delegates on Friday announced they’d form a new resistance, called the Promised Day Brigade, to fight American forces.
“What the Iraqi government has done is a catastrophe because it's giving an authorization that we don’t know when it will end,” said Sadr spokesman Salah al Obeidi
Sunni parties, meanwhile, have indicated they'd prefer to send the agreement before voters as a referendum.
Nonetheless, the agreement won support from 27 of 28 cabinet ministers who voted today. Government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh did not say which minister opposed it. Nine ministers were absent from the vote.
The agreement calls for American forces to pull back from Iraqi cities by June 2009, and for nearly all of them to withdraw from the country by 2011.
Dabbagh stressed that the agreement cannot be modified to extend that timetable.
He highlighted a number of key points, such as:
-- Giving Iraqis control of the International Zone, the compound in central Baghdad that houses U.S. officials and Iraqi government ministries.
-- Requiring American forces to get the consent of Iraq government officials before searching homes or conducting raids.
-- Allowing Iraqis to search all American shipments into the country.
-- Prohibiting American forces from conducting raids in other countries from bases inside Iraq, such as a recent assault on a Syrian location from Iraqi soil.
If the agreement fails in Iraq's parliament, U.S. troops would have no legal framework for being in Iraq unless Iraq seeks an extension of the current United Nations mandate that allows American forces to operate in the country. That mandate expires Dec. 31.
American officials praised the cabinet vote.
“We welcome the cabinet’s approval of the agreement today. This is an important and positive step,” a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/55972.html
BAGHDAD — Iraq's cabinet today approved a security pact that calls for Americans to withdraw from the country within three years. That action sets up a final vote on the agreement in Iraq's parliament.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki built political momentum for the agreement through the weekend, declaring his support and helping persuade leading Shiite Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani to give it the green light on Saturday.
Representatives of Maliki's Dawa party framed the deal as a means to end America’s occupation of Iraq while phasing out the assistance coalition forces provide. He reportedly bargained for concessions late last week before endorsing it Friday.
The agreement faces an uncertain outlook in parliament.
Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has urged Iraqis to demonstrate against the pact. His delegates on Friday announced they’d form a new resistance, called the Promised Day Brigade, to fight American forces.
“What the Iraqi government has done is a catastrophe because it's giving an authorization that we don’t know when it will end,” said Sadr spokesman Salah al Obeidi
Sunni parties, meanwhile, have indicated they'd prefer to send the agreement before voters as a referendum.
Nonetheless, the agreement won support from 27 of 28 cabinet ministers who voted today. Government spokesman Ali al Dabbagh did not say which minister opposed it. Nine ministers were absent from the vote.
The agreement calls for American forces to pull back from Iraqi cities by June 2009, and for nearly all of them to withdraw from the country by 2011.
Dabbagh stressed that the agreement cannot be modified to extend that timetable.
He highlighted a number of key points, such as:
-- Giving Iraqis control of the International Zone, the compound in central Baghdad that houses U.S. officials and Iraqi government ministries.
-- Requiring American forces to get the consent of Iraq government officials before searching homes or conducting raids.
-- Allowing Iraqis to search all American shipments into the country.
-- Prohibiting American forces from conducting raids in other countries from bases inside Iraq, such as a recent assault on a Syrian location from Iraqi soil.
If the agreement fails in Iraq's parliament, U.S. troops would have no legal framework for being in Iraq unless Iraq seeks an extension of the current United Nations mandate that allows American forces to operate in the country. That mandate expires Dec. 31.
American officials praised the cabinet vote.
“We welcome the cabinet’s approval of the agreement today. This is an important and positive step,” a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/55972.html
Thousands of Iraqi Arabs attend anti-Kurdish protest
by Hassan al-Obeidi – Sat Nov 15, 2:21 pm ET
AFP/File
TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) – Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Arabs took to the streets across Iraq Saturday to defend Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against criticism from leaders of the country's Kurdish minority.
Demonstrations were held in the northern Sunni town of Tikrit -- the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein -- the once-restive Sunni town of Hawijah, and the mostly Shiite southern cities of Karbala, Najaf, Nasiriyah, Samawah, and Hilla, AFP correspondents said.
They came out to protest remarks made earlier this week by Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani, who accused Maliki of illegally allying with tribes in areas with large Kurdish populations to expand the power of the state.
In his remarks Barzani had compared the tribal alliances -- which Maliki refers to as "Support Councils" -- to the so-called Jackass Brigades of Kurds who fought for Saddam against Kurdish rebels from the 1980s up until 2003.
The dispute has exposed yet another potentially explosive faultline in a country still scarred by sectarian tensions that until a few months ago had transformed large parts of Iraq into grisly battlefields.
In Tikrit hundreds of Sunni tribesmen demonstrated in support of the Shiite prime minister, waving signs saying, "We want a unified Iraq" and "Kirkuk and Mosul and Diyala are Iraqi," referring to the three most disputed areas.
"The Iraqi tribes are with the national positions of Maliki in preserving the unity of Iraq, establishing the rule of law, and rewriting the constitution," said Farhan al-Aud, an MP and Maliki advisor from the province.
"There are no disputed areas. This is one country," he added.
Maliki has credited the mostly tribal councils with helping his forces route insurgents and militias, while the Kurds have viewed them as a power grab that could endanger their aspirations for a greater autonomous region.
"Those who oppose the plan of Maliki, they want Iraq to remain weak and to continue the project of dividing it up," said Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a member of the Support Council in the Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital.
In the oil-rich Kirkuk province -- hotly disputed and fractured into Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities -- thousands of Arabs gathered at a football stadium outside Hawijah, once a hotbed of the country's Sunni insurgency.
"All of Hawijah calls out to Maliki, Glory of our country!" the crowd chanted, reprising a slogan once used at rallies for Saddam. "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Kirkuk!" they cried.
Sheikh Barhan Mazhar al-Asi, an Arab member of Kirkuk provincial council, said the demonstrators had gathered to assert that "Kirkuk is Iraqi."
Iraqi Kurds, many of whom see Kirkuk's oil wealth as vital to the future viability of their region, have called for it to be placed inside their autonomous zone, a plan deeply opposed by the province's Arab community.
"The Support Brigades are nothing more than a way of providing stability and security, to restore the balance among state institutions and guarantee the rights of all communities in Kirkuk," Asi said.
At a similar demonstration in the Shiite holy city of Karbala south of Baghdad hundreds of tribesmen demonstrated in front of the governorate.
Provincial governor Aqil al-Khazali rejected Kurdish accusations that the Support Councils are unconstitutional.
"Where is the violation when the government embraces the Iraqi tribes for the future of a new Iraq," he told the crowd.
"Do they want to talk about the list of (their) violations? Is allocating 17 percent of the budget (to them) constitutional? Are the Peshmerga constitutional?" he said referring to the powerful Kurdish militia.
Most of Iraq's roughly five million Kurds live in the three northernmost provinces, which are governed by Barzani and are largely autonomous. The Kurds have long wanted to expand the zone, however, to include other Kurdish areas.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081115/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsmalikikurdstribes
AFP/File
TIKRIT, Iraq (AFP) – Thousands of Sunni and Shiite Arabs took to the streets across Iraq Saturday to defend Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki against criticism from leaders of the country's Kurdish minority.
Demonstrations were held in the northern Sunni town of Tikrit -- the hometown of executed dictator Saddam Hussein -- the once-restive Sunni town of Hawijah, and the mostly Shiite southern cities of Karbala, Najaf, Nasiriyah, Samawah, and Hilla, AFP correspondents said.
They came out to protest remarks made earlier this week by Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani, who accused Maliki of illegally allying with tribes in areas with large Kurdish populations to expand the power of the state.
In his remarks Barzani had compared the tribal alliances -- which Maliki refers to as "Support Councils" -- to the so-called Jackass Brigades of Kurds who fought for Saddam against Kurdish rebels from the 1980s up until 2003.
The dispute has exposed yet another potentially explosive faultline in a country still scarred by sectarian tensions that until a few months ago had transformed large parts of Iraq into grisly battlefields.
In Tikrit hundreds of Sunni tribesmen demonstrated in support of the Shiite prime minister, waving signs saying, "We want a unified Iraq" and "Kirkuk and Mosul and Diyala are Iraqi," referring to the three most disputed areas.
"The Iraqi tribes are with the national positions of Maliki in preserving the unity of Iraq, establishing the rule of law, and rewriting the constitution," said Farhan al-Aud, an MP and Maliki advisor from the province.
"There are no disputed areas. This is one country," he added.
Maliki has credited the mostly tribal councils with helping his forces route insurgents and militias, while the Kurds have viewed them as a power grab that could endanger their aspirations for a greater autonomous region.
"Those who oppose the plan of Maliki, they want Iraq to remain weak and to continue the project of dividing it up," said Ahmed al-Dulaimi, a member of the Support Council in the Salaheddin province, of which Tikrit is the capital.
In the oil-rich Kirkuk province -- hotly disputed and fractured into Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen communities -- thousands of Arabs gathered at a football stadium outside Hawijah, once a hotbed of the country's Sunni insurgency.
"All of Hawijah calls out to Maliki, Glory of our country!" the crowd chanted, reprising a slogan once used at rallies for Saddam. "With our souls, with our blood, we sacrifice for you, Kirkuk!" they cried.
Sheikh Barhan Mazhar al-Asi, an Arab member of Kirkuk provincial council, said the demonstrators had gathered to assert that "Kirkuk is Iraqi."
Iraqi Kurds, many of whom see Kirkuk's oil wealth as vital to the future viability of their region, have called for it to be placed inside their autonomous zone, a plan deeply opposed by the province's Arab community.
"The Support Brigades are nothing more than a way of providing stability and security, to restore the balance among state institutions and guarantee the rights of all communities in Kirkuk," Asi said.
At a similar demonstration in the Shiite holy city of Karbala south of Baghdad hundreds of tribesmen demonstrated in front of the governorate.
Provincial governor Aqil al-Khazali rejected Kurdish accusations that the Support Councils are unconstitutional.
"Where is the violation when the government embraces the Iraqi tribes for the future of a new Iraq," he told the crowd.
"Do they want to talk about the list of (their) violations? Is allocating 17 percent of the budget (to them) constitutional? Are the Peshmerga constitutional?" he said referring to the powerful Kurdish militia.
Most of Iraq's roughly five million Kurds live in the three northernmost provinces, which are governed by Barzani and are largely autonomous. The Kurds have long wanted to expand the zone, however, to include other Kurdish areas.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081115/wl_mideast_afp/iraqpoliticsmalikikurdstribes
samedi 15 novembre 2008
Chart of the Persian Gulf to Baghdad
.jpg)
“Chart of the Persian Gulf to Baghdad” Printed in color by the Naval Academy in 1865.
Drawn by the schoolmaster Ali Bey of the War Academy, the chart includes the monogram of Sultan Abdülaziz (1861-1876) and is made to an Ottoman scale.
Dimensions: 55 x 134 cm.
Photograph © Turkish Naval Museum
For larger image click on:
http://jottoc.blogspot.com/2007/04/chart-of-persian-gulf-to-baghdad.html
http://jottoc.blogspot.com/2007/04/chart-of-persian-gulf-to-baghdad.html
vendredi 14 novembre 2008
Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation?
http://www.crisisgroup.org/library/documents/middle_east___north_africa/iraq_iran_gulf/81_turkey_and_iraqi_kurds___conflict_or_cooperation.pdf
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT
INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP - NEW REPORT
Istanbul/Brussels, 13 November 2008:
Turkey’s newly adroit management of its relationship with Iraqi Kurds has resulted in a tentative victory for pragmatism over ultra-nationalism, but many obstacles remain before relations can be normalised.
Turkey and Iraqi Kurds: Conflict or Cooperation?,* the latest background report from the International Crisis Group, examines the study in contrasts that has been Ankara’s policy:
Turkey periodically sends jets to bomb suspected hide-outs of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq and expresses alarm at the prospect of Kurdish independence, yet it has now significantly deepened its ties to the Iraqi Kurdish region.
“Both Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have made a breakthrough in challenging ultra-nationalism”, says Oytun Çelik, Crisis Group’s Istanbul-based analyst. “They should continue to invest in a relationship that, though fragile and beset by uncertainties over Iraq’s future, has become more pragmatic and potentially very fruitful”.
Ankara’s policy toward Iraq is based on two core national interests: preserving that country’s territorial integrity and fighting the PKK, whose rebels use remote northern Iraqi border areas as staging ground for attacks inside Turkey. From Turkey’s perspective, Iraq’s disintegration would remove a critical counterweight to Iranian influence and, more ominously, herald the birth of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq that could inspire Kurdish nationalist passions inside Turkey. As a result, it has sought to prevent the sectarian conflict in Iraq’s centre from escalating, Iraqi Kurds from seceding and the PKK from prospering.
Political divisions as to how this should be achieved have yielded a measure of confusion, but the result has been a largely effective compromise, combining military pressure, politics, diplomacy and economic incentives. While it has mounted limited cross-border operations against the PKK, Turkey has begun meeting with Iraqi Kurdish leaders and deepened economic ties with their federal region.
There have been real benefits for the KRG as well. The warming relationship is based on its realisation that U.S. forces may draw down significantly in the next two years, leaving the Kurds increasingly dependent on the federal government and neighbouring states. Turkey can be a useful partner as a bridge to Europe, its suitability as a trans-shipment country for Kurdish oil and gas, its investment capabilities and the relatively better quality of the goods it has to sell.
“More is required to lay the foundations of a lasting, stable relationship, including a peaceful, consensus-based solution to the Kirkuk question”, states Joost Hiltermann, Crisis Group’s Middle East Deputy Program Director. “But, amid the many uncertain prospects facing Iraq, this at least is one development to be welcomed and nurtured”.
jeudi 13 novembre 2008
Bir Ocak Turkmen Cultural Association – Chicago
( Not For Profit Organization )
Bir Ocak Türkmen Kültür Derneği – Şikago
( Kâr Amacı Gütmeyen Bir Kurumdur )
6334 N. Kedzie Avenue
Chicago , IL. 60659
Tel : (773) 764 3479
e-mail : birocakyilmaz@yahoo.com
Nov.12, 2008
Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
On behalf of the Iraqi Turkmen community in the United States, we would like to congratulate you on your election as the 44th President of the United States. In these troubling times, we understand that your presidency will undoubtedly face tough policy decisions at home and abroad – especially in Iraq.
Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Turkmens (the third largest ethnic group in Iraq) have struggled to have their voices heard in the formation of the new Iraqi government. While the mainstream public has come to recognize Iraq as a nation comprised of only Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, ethnic minorities of Iraq have become invisible in the eyes of U.S and Iraqi policymakers.
Thus, as the next President of the United States, we hope that you and your newly formed administration makes a conscious effort to include Iraqi Turkmens in any rhetoric regarding the future of Iraq and consider our people as an integral piece to a complex puzzle. We look forward to communicating regularly with you regarding matters pertaining to Iraqi Turkmens. Again, we send you our sincerest congratulations.
Thank you,
Ahmad Yilmaz
M.A – International Relations, University of Chicago
Member, Bir Ocak Turkmen Cultural Association – Chicago
( Not For Profit Organization )
Bir Ocak Türkmen Kültür Derneği – Şikago
( Kâr Amacı Gütmeyen Bir Kurumdur )
6334 N. Kedzie Avenue
Chicago , IL. 60659
Tel : (773) 764 3479
e-mail : birocakyilmaz@yahoo.com
Nov.12, 2008
Dear President-elect Barack Obama,
On behalf of the Iraqi Turkmen community in the United States, we would like to congratulate you on your election as the 44th President of the United States. In these troubling times, we understand that your presidency will undoubtedly face tough policy decisions at home and abroad – especially in Iraq.
Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Turkmens (the third largest ethnic group in Iraq) have struggled to have their voices heard in the formation of the new Iraqi government. While the mainstream public has come to recognize Iraq as a nation comprised of only Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, ethnic minorities of Iraq have become invisible in the eyes of U.S and Iraqi policymakers.
Thus, as the next President of the United States, we hope that you and your newly formed administration makes a conscious effort to include Iraqi Turkmens in any rhetoric regarding the future of Iraq and consider our people as an integral piece to a complex puzzle. We look forward to communicating regularly with you regarding matters pertaining to Iraqi Turkmens. Again, we send you our sincerest congratulations.
Thank you,
Ahmad Yilmaz
M.A – International Relations, University of Chicago
Member, Bir Ocak Turkmen Cultural Association – Chicago
Presidential Council ratifies Electoral Law
No change in quotas for minorities
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13715&size=A
Presidential council ratifies electoral law. No change in quotas for minorities
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Iraqi presidential council has ratified the law, approved by parliament on Monday, November 3, with 106 votes out of 150, reserving a quota of seats for minorities, in view of the elections for the renewal of the provincial councils, scheduled for January 31, 2009.
The law sets aside six seats out of a total of 440: three go to Christians (Baghdad, Nineveh, and Basra), one each to the Yazidi and the Shabak in Nineveh, and one to the Sabians, in the capital. On Saturday, November 8, President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish) and vice-presidents Tareq Al Hashemi (Sunni) and Adel Abdul-Mahdi (Shiite) ratified the decree into law, despite the opposition of the Christian community, which had called for a presidential veto.
On Wednesday, November 5, in an interview with AsiaNews, Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, called the concession a "token" that does not truly take into account the rights of Iraqi Christians.
On Saturday, November 8, Naseer Ani, head of the presidential staff, released a statement on the "extensive discussions" between the presidential council and Vatican representatives, which examined the invitation of the United Nations to reintroduce article 50. The first draft, which was ultimately rejected, gave 15 seats in six different provinces to the minorities, including 13 for Christians and one each for the Shabak and Yazidi. The head of the presidential cabinet says that in the end, it was decided to ratify the law without introducing any changes, in order to "respect" the role and functions of parliament.
The reply from the Christians is blunt: member of parliament Younaam Kanna says that the community is ready to "boycott the elections," and calls the ratification of the law "an insult." On the Sunni side, involved in a bitter dispute with its Kurdish counterparts in the region of Nineveh, the firm opposition continues to the concession of a quota for minorities. The Sunnis are afraid of an alliance of Christians and Kurds that would increase Kurdish influence in northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has also dashed the expectations of the Kurds, emphasizing the need for a "strong federal state," at a moment in which constitutional modifications are proceeding. It is a new signal from the central government on the ambitions of autonomy in certain areas of Iraq, especially the autonomous region of Kurdistan, which has extensive oil reserves. Baghdad is afraid that an eventual referendum could bring an expansion of Kurdish territories.
The provincial elections scheduled for January 31, 2009, will take place in 14 of the 18 provinces of Iraq. Excluded from the elections are Kirkuk and the three provinces of Arbil, Dohuk, and Sulaimaniyah.
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
http://www.asianews.it/index.php?l=en&art=13715&size=A
Presidential council ratifies electoral law. No change in quotas for minorities
Baghdad (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The Iraqi presidential council has ratified the law, approved by parliament on Monday, November 3, with 106 votes out of 150, reserving a quota of seats for minorities, in view of the elections for the renewal of the provincial councils, scheduled for January 31, 2009.
The law sets aside six seats out of a total of 440: three go to Christians (Baghdad, Nineveh, and Basra), one each to the Yazidi and the Shabak in Nineveh, and one to the Sabians, in the capital. On Saturday, November 8, President Jalal Talabani (Kurdish) and vice-presidents Tareq Al Hashemi (Sunni) and Adel Abdul-Mahdi (Shiite) ratified the decree into law, despite the opposition of the Christian community, which had called for a presidential veto.
On Wednesday, November 5, in an interview with AsiaNews, Shlemon Warduni, the auxiliary bishop of Baghdad, called the concession a "token" that does not truly take into account the rights of Iraqi Christians.
On Saturday, November 8, Naseer Ani, head of the presidential staff, released a statement on the "extensive discussions" between the presidential council and Vatican representatives, which examined the invitation of the United Nations to reintroduce article 50. The first draft, which was ultimately rejected, gave 15 seats in six different provinces to the minorities, including 13 for Christians and one each for the Shabak and Yazidi. The head of the presidential cabinet says that in the end, it was decided to ratify the law without introducing any changes, in order to "respect" the role and functions of parliament.
The reply from the Christians is blunt: member of parliament Younaam Kanna says that the community is ready to "boycott the elections," and calls the ratification of the law "an insult." On the Sunni side, involved in a bitter dispute with its Kurdish counterparts in the region of Nineveh, the firm opposition continues to the concession of a quota for minorities. The Sunnis are afraid of an alliance of Christians and Kurds that would increase Kurdish influence in northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki has also dashed the expectations of the Kurds, emphasizing the need for a "strong federal state," at a moment in which constitutional modifications are proceeding. It is a new signal from the central government on the ambitions of autonomy in certain areas of Iraq, especially the autonomous region of Kurdistan, which has extensive oil reserves. Baghdad is afraid that an eventual referendum could bring an expansion of Kurdish territories.
The provincial elections scheduled for January 31, 2009, will take place in 14 of the 18 provinces of Iraq. Excluded from the elections are Kirkuk and the three provinces of Arbil, Dohuk, and Sulaimaniyah.
mardi 11 novembre 2008
An Initiative to Create the Federal Region of Basra Is Launched
By Reidar Visser (www.historiae.org)
11 November 2008
The Basra parliamentarian and former member of Wifaq Wail Abd al-Latif has announced that a petition requesting a referendum for the creation of the federal region of Basra (Iqlim al-Basra) as a standalone entity has been submitted to the Iraqi electoral commission, featuring 34,800 signatures. The petitioners believe that this number is sufficient to meet the requirement that at least 2% of the governorate population should sign the initial petition (this would correspond to a total Basra population of 1,740,000).
According to the framework for the creation of federal regions adopted by the Iraqi parliament with a tiny majority in October 2006, the next step now is for the petition to be published in local newspapers by the electoral commission which should then give supporters of the project at least one month to add their names to the petition to meet the required total of one tenth of the voter population necessary to call a referendum on the formation of a federal region (50% of the votes and 50% participation is required to win). If a region is formed it cannot join with any other federal region, only with additional governorates (the first draft of the October 2006 law said, “a federal region consists of one or more governorates or one or more federal regions”; this was subsequently changed to read “a federal region consists of a governorate or more” which clearly seems to suggest a desire on the framers of the law to exclude the possibility of two regions joining together).
The further process towards a final decision on the fate of the Basra federal initiative will be influenced by political struggles as well as numerous legal ambiguities. Politically, the idea of Basra as a separate federal entity has been under consideration since late 2003, but for a time coexisted with a scheme of joining Basra with the two neighbouring governorates of Maysan and Dhi Qar (Iqlim al-Janub). Then, from around 2006 onwards, the idea of Basra as a one-governorate federal region emerged as the most prominent of the local federal schemes, with supporters both among secularists (Wail Abd al-Latif), tribal leaders (such as Amr al-Faiz) and Islamists (the Fadila party).
Political aspects and legal ones are connected to each other with respect to what this initiative means in terms of a challenge to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), one of the Shiite parties that both the United States and Iran consider as one of their main partners in Iraq. Their competing idea of creating a huge nine-governorate sectarian Shiite region from Basra to the border of Baghdad has failed to create popular enthusiasm since its launch in August 2005. The formation of Basra as a federal region would entail additional difficulties for ISCI, which would face a more complicated roadmap in case they should wish to create a scheme for additional Shiite governorates to join the oil-rich Basra in a super-region. They do have the option of launching a competing initiative locally in Basra (this would be followed by a pre-referendum poll that would decide which of the schemes should go to a referendum); however the modalities for this and in particular the timeline is poorly specified in the October 2006 law, and ISCI seems to enjoy far less support in Basra than in Najaf (where there is almost no oil). This lack of legal clarity, along with the general trend towards more national attitudes in the Iraqi parliament as a whole (witness ISCI’s gradual retreat from its pro-federal propaganda and Nuri al-Maliki’s recent renewed call for a more centralised state), means that the future of the Basra federal initiative is far from certain. Some Iraqi nationalists consider it to be less harmful than federal schemes that are explicitly sectarian (such of that of ISCI), whereas others (including many in Basra itself) think that any extension of the federal principle south of Kurdistan remains objectionable.
Also on this topic:
Suffering, Oil, and Ideals of Coexistence: Non-Sectarian Federal Trends in the Far South of Iraq
Iraq Federalism Bill Adopted Amid Protests and Joint Shiite–Sunni Boycott
The Draft Law for the Formation of Regions: A Recipe for Permanent Instability in Iraq?
11 November 2008
The Basra parliamentarian and former member of Wifaq Wail Abd al-Latif has announced that a petition requesting a referendum for the creation of the federal region of Basra (Iqlim al-Basra) as a standalone entity has been submitted to the Iraqi electoral commission, featuring 34,800 signatures. The petitioners believe that this number is sufficient to meet the requirement that at least 2% of the governorate population should sign the initial petition (this would correspond to a total Basra population of 1,740,000).
According to the framework for the creation of federal regions adopted by the Iraqi parliament with a tiny majority in October 2006, the next step now is for the petition to be published in local newspapers by the electoral commission which should then give supporters of the project at least one month to add their names to the petition to meet the required total of one tenth of the voter population necessary to call a referendum on the formation of a federal region (50% of the votes and 50% participation is required to win). If a region is formed it cannot join with any other federal region, only with additional governorates (the first draft of the October 2006 law said, “a federal region consists of one or more governorates or one or more federal regions”; this was subsequently changed to read “a federal region consists of a governorate or more” which clearly seems to suggest a desire on the framers of the law to exclude the possibility of two regions joining together).
The further process towards a final decision on the fate of the Basra federal initiative will be influenced by political struggles as well as numerous legal ambiguities. Politically, the idea of Basra as a separate federal entity has been under consideration since late 2003, but for a time coexisted with a scheme of joining Basra with the two neighbouring governorates of Maysan and Dhi Qar (Iqlim al-Janub). Then, from around 2006 onwards, the idea of Basra as a one-governorate federal region emerged as the most prominent of the local federal schemes, with supporters both among secularists (Wail Abd al-Latif), tribal leaders (such as Amr al-Faiz) and Islamists (the Fadila party).
Political aspects and legal ones are connected to each other with respect to what this initiative means in terms of a challenge to the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI), one of the Shiite parties that both the United States and Iran consider as one of their main partners in Iraq. Their competing idea of creating a huge nine-governorate sectarian Shiite region from Basra to the border of Baghdad has failed to create popular enthusiasm since its launch in August 2005. The formation of Basra as a federal region would entail additional difficulties for ISCI, which would face a more complicated roadmap in case they should wish to create a scheme for additional Shiite governorates to join the oil-rich Basra in a super-region. They do have the option of launching a competing initiative locally in Basra (this would be followed by a pre-referendum poll that would decide which of the schemes should go to a referendum); however the modalities for this and in particular the timeline is poorly specified in the October 2006 law, and ISCI seems to enjoy far less support in Basra than in Najaf (where there is almost no oil). This lack of legal clarity, along with the general trend towards more national attitudes in the Iraqi parliament as a whole (witness ISCI’s gradual retreat from its pro-federal propaganda and Nuri al-Maliki’s recent renewed call for a more centralised state), means that the future of the Basra federal initiative is far from certain. Some Iraqi nationalists consider it to be less harmful than federal schemes that are explicitly sectarian (such of that of ISCI), whereas others (including many in Basra itself) think that any extension of the federal principle south of Kurdistan remains objectionable.
Also on this topic:
Suffering, Oil, and Ideals of Coexistence: Non-Sectarian Federal Trends in the Far South of Iraq
Iraq Federalism Bill Adopted Amid Protests and Joint Shiite–Sunni Boycott
The Draft Law for the Formation of Regions: A Recipe for Permanent Instability in Iraq?
IRAQI TURKMEN FRONT COMMUNIQUE
الدائرة الاعلامية
العدد:81
التاريخ:11 /11/2008
بيان
الجبهة التركمانية العراقية تؤكد على تعديل الدستور
تؤكد الجبهة التركمانية العراقية دعوة دولة رئيس الوزراء بأن الدستور كتب على عجل و بأنه بحاجة إلى تعديل. و قد أكدت سابقا بأن الدستور الذي كتب في ظرف غير طبيعي هو دستور لا يشكل وثيقة عهد بين الشعب و الحكومة، انما دستور املته مصالح طرف تعاون مع قوات الغزو التي و هو الطرف الذي كان و ما يزال يرفض اية تعديلات عليه بالرغم من يقين الكتل السياسية التي تحكم العراق بأن بضعة الاف من الأصوات فقط كانت قد ادت الى رفض الدستور، و ان تمريره في كركوك كان من خلال التزوير . ان الدستور بحاجة الى تعديل بعد قراءات متأنية و عميقة. لا يوجد دستور شفهي او مكتوب في العالم لا يقبل بالتعديل، و لا يوجد دستور في العالم فيه مادة مرتبطة بتاريخ، فالدستور وثيقة عهد و ليس قانون. ان السيد رئيس الجمهورية و في حواره ألاخير مع العراقية اكد بأن العراق ما يزال بسيادة ناقصة و اعطى أمثلة على قوله و اشار الى الاحتلال مرارا، اذن لا يجيز اي قانون دولي الاعتراف بقانون او دستور كتب تحت قوات الاحتلال في اي بلد، اذن لماذا يتم الغاء القانون الدولي في العراق؟
ان الدستور الذي اكدت منظمات و مراكز أبحاث دولية و منها مجموعة الأزمة الدولية بانه كتب على عجل، لم يكتب لأجل حقوق العراقيين، انما دستور يعمق اسلوب الحكم الذي ادخله بول بريمر الى العراق و اساسه المحاصصة الطائفية و الاثنية و كاد ان يتسبب بجر العراق الى حرب بين الاشقاء. ان الدستور يضمن حق الجميع و يؤكده فعلا و ليس من خلال منح حصص، و ما يحدث مع الأقليات في قانون انتخاب مجالس المحافظات، يؤكد وجوب تعديل الدستور، و ما يحدث في ادارة الشمال يؤكد وجوب هذا التعديل أيضا. لا يوجد دستور يضعف الحكومة المركزية لأجل طرف واحد، في اي بلد في العالم، لماذا يقبل في العراق؟
ان الدستور، اي دستور، يضمن وحدة البلد، اي بلد، و يضمن حقوق الجميع و يقضي على الفروق بين الطوائف و الأثنيات. على ممثلي الشعب في مجلس النواب ان ينحازوا الى الأصوات التي انتخبتهم مرة أخرى إن يؤيدوا دعوة المالكي إلى تعديل الدستور الذي كتب على عجل و تحت سلطات الاحتلال
و من أجل دستور يؤكد وحدة العراق أرضا و شعبا و يحافظ عليها
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العنوان: كركوك- طريق بغداد- قرب بناية المحافظةـــــــــــــــــــــ
Adres:Kerkük. Bağdat yolu. Valilik binası yanında
E.mail:itc_media@yahoo.com
Turkey remembers Atatürk on 70th Anniversary of his death
Ceremonies were held across Turkey yesterday to commemorate Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, on the 70th anniversary of his death.
An official ceremony held at Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum, was attended by President Abdullah Gül and other officials. Gül laid a wreath of white and red carnations at Atatürk's tomb. At exactly 9:05 a.m., the time of Atatürk's death 70 years ago, flags flew at half-mast and car horns and sirens were sounded. The entire country observed a two-minute period of silence, after which the national anthem was played.
Signing the official Anıt-kabir memorial book at Misak-ı Milli (National Pact) Tower, President Gül wrote: "Great Atatürk, we commemorate you with respect on the 70th year of your death... We are determined to follow developments in the world, continue our process of democratization and leave a more prosperous and strong country to future generations. We present you our gratitude and love. May your soul rest in peace."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at a memorial ceremony organized by the Atatürk Supreme Council for Culture, Language and History. He stressed that Turkey has covered a significant distance on the path toward integration with the modern world. "Turkey has been elected to the UN Security Council and is taking determined steps towards EU membership. We have become a country which assumes an active role in the solution of regional and global problems and the elimination of rifts between civilizations," said Erdoğan.
Memorial events were held in such other countries as Greece, Hungary and Kosovo to remember Atatürk. In the meantime, on Sunday evening Turkish police discovered about 2 kilograms of explosives that had been left in a package under a platform in the eastern city of Hakkari, where speakers would address participants of a ceremony commemorating Atatürk. Bomb disposal experts defused the explosives, and police launched an investigation to find out who had planted the explosives.
Two individuals who disrupted ceremonies in Erzincan and İstanbul were taken out of parade areas by security forces. Nurettin Tanrıverdi in eastern Erzincan province started to shout as sirens were blown to mark the moment of Atatürk's death. "If we had followed Atatürk's path, Europe would be in need of us now. The governor tried to have me arrested three times," he screamed. Tanrıverdi was reported to be mentally challenged. Another person whose name was not released, similarly, started to yell toward the end of a memorial ceremony in İstanbul's Taksim Square. "I invite you all to Islam," he shouted.
Atatürk was born in 1881 in Thessalonica, in present-day Greece. While his wartime record in the Balkan Wars, World War I and the War of Independence is outstanding, he is chiefly remembered for founding the Turkish Republic and the modernizing reforms that he instituted.
Atatürk died at Dolmabahçe Palace, in İstanbul, on Nov. 10, 1938, finally succumbing to a liver disease from which he suffered. His body was first taken to a temporary resting place at the Ethnography Museum in Ankara on Nov. 21, 1938. When his mausoleum was completed, he was interred with a grand ceremony on Nov. 10, 1953.
11 November 2008, Tuesday
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES İSTANBUL
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=158356
An official ceremony held at Anıtkabir, Atatürk's mausoleum, was attended by President Abdullah Gül and other officials. Gül laid a wreath of white and red carnations at Atatürk's tomb. At exactly 9:05 a.m., the time of Atatürk's death 70 years ago, flags flew at half-mast and car horns and sirens were sounded. The entire country observed a two-minute period of silence, after which the national anthem was played.
Signing the official Anıt-kabir memorial book at Misak-ı Milli (National Pact) Tower, President Gül wrote: "Great Atatürk, we commemorate you with respect on the 70th year of your death... We are determined to follow developments in the world, continue our process of democratization and leave a more prosperous and strong country to future generations. We present you our gratitude and love. May your soul rest in peace."
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan delivered a speech at a memorial ceremony organized by the Atatürk Supreme Council for Culture, Language and History. He stressed that Turkey has covered a significant distance on the path toward integration with the modern world. "Turkey has been elected to the UN Security Council and is taking determined steps towards EU membership. We have become a country which assumes an active role in the solution of regional and global problems and the elimination of rifts between civilizations," said Erdoğan.
Memorial events were held in such other countries as Greece, Hungary and Kosovo to remember Atatürk. In the meantime, on Sunday evening Turkish police discovered about 2 kilograms of explosives that had been left in a package under a platform in the eastern city of Hakkari, where speakers would address participants of a ceremony commemorating Atatürk. Bomb disposal experts defused the explosives, and police launched an investigation to find out who had planted the explosives.
Two individuals who disrupted ceremonies in Erzincan and İstanbul were taken out of parade areas by security forces. Nurettin Tanrıverdi in eastern Erzincan province started to shout as sirens were blown to mark the moment of Atatürk's death. "If we had followed Atatürk's path, Europe would be in need of us now. The governor tried to have me arrested three times," he screamed. Tanrıverdi was reported to be mentally challenged. Another person whose name was not released, similarly, started to yell toward the end of a memorial ceremony in İstanbul's Taksim Square. "I invite you all to Islam," he shouted.
Atatürk was born in 1881 in Thessalonica, in present-day Greece. While his wartime record in the Balkan Wars, World War I and the War of Independence is outstanding, he is chiefly remembered for founding the Turkish Republic and the modernizing reforms that he instituted.
Atatürk died at Dolmabahçe Palace, in İstanbul, on Nov. 10, 1938, finally succumbing to a liver disease from which he suffered. His body was first taken to a temporary resting place at the Ethnography Museum in Ankara on Nov. 21, 1938. When his mausoleum was completed, he was interred with a grand ceremony on Nov. 10, 1953.
11 November 2008, Tuesday
TODAY'S ZAMAN WITH WIRES İSTANBUL
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=158356
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