BBC Bias: Distortion of the ethnic composition of Kerkuk

Hereunder is a letter of complaint addressed to the BBC by our friend Imad:

Subject: Thanks BBC but NO Thanks for biased reporting

Only Arabs and Kurds in Kerkuk?
I am sure the British government own records since the first occupation of Iraq back in 1917 show this is not the case.

What happened with the Turkmens who have always been the original inhabitants of the city and still are the majority?

Arabs started settling to the west since the thirties and Kurds have always lived in the countryside to the east and north. But in the city and the immediate surrounding where the oil is has always been a Turkmen city.
All Iraqi censors show this.

No offence meant to anyone, Kerkuk is an Iraqi city and will always remain so, all Iraqis have the right to live and work in Kerkuk, but facts are facts and no amount of BBC reported crap would change history.

We are well aware of this kind of propaganda, it smacks of old colonial British tactics perfected by the zionists in ARAB ISLAMIC PALESTINE.

Just as Palestine will always be ARAB ISLAMIC Kerkuk will, its history is Turkmen, the name of its original residential areas and streets are Turkmen, its cemeteries are full of Turkmens, its character is Turkmen, in fact every Iraqi young and old know these.

Even the UN has stated that the number of Kurds who were displaced from Kerkuk at the time of Saddam were about 11,000.

Kerkuk is nobody’s Jerusalem it is Iraqi.

Besides, in whose interest do the Americans remain in Kerkuk?
Is it not to tilt the balance in favour of the aggressors?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8315675.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8315893.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_8313000/8313936.stm

Imad