IRAK KÜRTLERİ IRAK’TAN TOPRAK TALEP EDİYOR!

IRAK KÜRTLERİ IRAK’TAN TOPRAK TALEP EDİYOR!


ALİ KERKÜKLÜ ( Irak’a Özgürlük Operasyonu ve Kerkük Kitabının Yazarı)

Kürtlerin Hayal Ettikleri Ve Bölge Ülkelerinin Topraklarını da İçine Alan Sözde Kürt Devletinin (İkinci İsrail‘in) Haritası. İşin İlginç Yanı Bu Topraklar Her Gün Genişliyor


Kürt grupları, Kürt ırkını yücelten politikaları, Kürtlerin kendi etnik hedefleri için tehdit oluşturduğunu düşündükleri herkesle kavga etmeye hazır, fanatik ve ırkçı bir kuşağın ortaya çıkmasını teşvik eden, yanlış tarihi ve coğrafi bilgilere dayalı ders programları hazırladılar. Bu şartlar altında Peşmerge, Asayiş ve kürt istihbarat örgütleri (Parastin ve Zenyari) aynı anlayışla oluşturuldu.


Kürt grupları sözde toprakları başkaları tarafından işgal edilip bir mazlumiyet ve mağduriyet duygusu yaratmaya çalışıyorlar, başta petrol zengini Türkmen şehri Kerkük olmak üzere Kürt bölgesinin içinde olduğunu. Farklı bir görüş ortaya koyan tarihi ve akademik kaynaklara rağmen, onlar geniş Irak toprakları üzerinde sözde Kürt devletini (ikinci İsrail’i) inşa etmelerinin tarihi hakları olduğuna iddia etmeye başladılar.


Kürtler ta­rih­siz­ler, ya­pay geç­miş ya­rat­ma­ya ça­lı­şı­yor­lar. Kürt ta­rih­çi­le­ri ve ay­dın­la­rı bir da­la tu­tun­mak ve ye­ni bir ta­rih ya­rat­mak is­ti­yor­lar, ama ta­ri­hi da­ya­nak­la­rı yok ve id­di­ala­rı­nı da hiç­bir ta­ri­hi kay­nak doğ­ru­la­mı­yor. Ya­pa­bil­dik­le­ri tek şey, baş­ka mil­let­le­rin ta­ri­hi şah­si­yet­le­ri­ni ve kül­tü­rel var­lık­la­rı­nı ken­di­le­ri­ne mal et­me­ye ça­lış­mak. Yarında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun kurucularının Kürtler’in olduğunu söylerlerse kimse şaşmasın.


Saddam Hüseyin’in devrilmesinden sonra ortaya çıkan otorite boşluğu pek çok grup tarafından fırsat bilinmiş, özellikle Kürt gruplar bu fırsatı en iyi şekilde değerlendirmeye çalışan kesimlerden biri olmuştur, otoritenin sarsılması (Merkezi Hükümetin zayıflığı) ve işgal, Kürtler tarafından tarihi bir şans olarak algılanmıştır. Bu bağlamda ABD, İngiltere ve İsrail’in desteği ile 1991 yılında kazanılan özel statüyü korumuş ve işgalden sonrada federasyonu elde eden Kürtler, bölgelerini genişletmek için de yeni topraklara (Musul,Kerkük,Selahaddin ve Diyala İllerine) göz dikmiştir.


Irak devlet kurumlarının neredeyse tümünün parçalanmış ve Iraklıların psikolojik ve ekonomik olarak bitkin düşmüş olması, iyi organize ve silahlı Kürt partileri ve peşmergelerinin işgal güçlerinin gözetimi altında dört ilde (Musul,Kerkük,Selahaddin ve Diyala) ve buradaki devlet kurumlarına girip denetim alanlarını genişletmelerini kolaylaştırdı. Asgari eğitim seviyesine sahip olmayan Kürt Peşmerge ve partizanları şehirlerde, ilçelerde ve beldelerde üst mevkilere geldi. Sonuç olarak, ilçe ve beldelerin idari amiri ve belediye başkanı olarak atandılar. Böylece, devlet dairelerinin müdürlerinin çoğu etnik olarak Kürtlerden olup, bunlar devlet daire yönetimi ve belediye meclislerinin denetimini de ele geçirdi. Irak’ın Kuzeyinden onbinlerce Kürt, devlet dairelerine yerleştirilerek bazı bölgelerde devlet personelinin sayısı iki kat arttı. Atamalarda Kürt milliyetçiliği ve parti mensubiyeti esas alındı. Bu yollarla Kürt olmayan birçok kişi Kürt partilerinin gündemi doğrultusunda çalışmak zorunda bırakıldı. Ayrıca, Kürt partileri ABD, İngiltere ve İsrail’in desteği ile kendi büyüklükleriyle orantısız olarak Irak devletinde çok sayıda önemli görevi ele geçirdiler. Irak Devletindeki toplam 165 üst düzey görevden 65’ine Kürtler sahip bulunuyorlar. Yeni kurulan Irak Hükümetinde Kürtler oldukça önemli olan bakanlılardan 3’ü vekaleten olmak üzere 7 tanesini aldılar, Cumhurbaşkanlığı makamında Celal Talabani başta olmak üzere Başbakan yardımcısı ve Ticaret Bakanı (vekaleten) Roj Nuri Şiveys, Dışişleri Bakanı ve Kadınlardan Sorumlu Devlet Bakanı (vekaleten) Hoşyar Zebari yer aldı.



Tüm şehir, ilçe ve beldelerde peşmergelerin desteğini arkasına alan yüzlerce Kürt parti merkezleri ve kürt istihbarat büroları açıldı. Kürt partiler diğer milliyetlerin mensuplarından çok sayıda işbirlikçi kazanmak için büyük meblağlar harcadı.



Seçimler sırasında oylarını almak için kendilerine sembolik meblağlar ödenerek Kürt olmayan insanların yoksulluğu sömürüldü. Dahası, önemli mevkilerde bulunan kişilerin birçoğuna Kürt partilerin gündemlerini desteklemeleri için büyük meblağlar ödendi. Peşmergeler hemen hemen tüm seçim bürolarına baskı yaparak Türkmenlerin oy kullanmaları engellendi ve her türlü manipülasyon ve seçim hilelerine başvurarak Kürt partileri çoğu bölgede seçimi kazandı, ve bu da onların bu bölgelerde yönetim ve karar mekanizmasının belli başlı tüm mevkileri üzerindeki denetimlerini arttırdı. Kürtler, bugün başkent Bağdat da bile parayla bir çok gazeteci, basın kuruluşu ve tv’yi elde etmişlerdir. Kürt partileri aleyhlerine yazan kalemleri şantaj, tutuklama, ölüm tehdidi ile susturmaktalar ve hatta öldürmekteler. Türkmen şehri Erbil’de bulunan Selahaddin Üniversitesi’nde İngilizce bölümünde okuyan ve İşmani gazetesinde çalışan 23 yaşındaki Zerdüşt Osman, “Barzani’nin kızıyla aşk yaşıyorum” başlıklı yazısında, Mesud Barzani’nin damadı olsam yoksulluktan yakayı kurtaracağım temasını espiriyle kaleme almıştı. Osman’ın işkence edildikten sonra kafasına iki kurşun sıkılarak öldürüldü.



Kürt asıllı Avusturya vatandaşı öğretim görevlisi Dr. Kemal Seyyid Kadir, yıllar sonra döndüğü memleketine, KDP istihbarat servisi Parastin'in tarafından kaçırıldı, daha sonra tutuklandı. Kadir Sırf Barzani ve ailesini eleştiren yazılar yazdı diye yıldırım hızıyla 30 yıl hapis cezasına çarptırıldı. Bazıları diktatör Saddam’ın Türkmenlere yaptıkları neden anlatılmıyor diye soruyor, evet zalim Saddam Türkmenlere baskı, zulüm, işkence, göçe zorlama, asimilasyon, etnik temizleme ve katliamlar yaptı. Bugün Türkmenlerin yaşadıkları dünden farkı ne? Saddam gitti yerine Saddamlar geldi!



Irak Hükümeti, 11 Mart 1970 yılında Kürtlere istedikleri özerkliği tanıdı.1970'li yıllardan bu yana özerkliğe sahip olan Kürtlerin siyasi beklentileri gelişerek, 2003’den sonra yerini federasyona bırakmıştır. Irak’ın işgalinde, işgalcilere öncülük ve savaş süresince ABD ve İngiltere ile işbirliği yapan Kürtler federasyonu da elde etmiştir. İşgalcilerin desteği ile Kürtler, şimdilik Irak'ın yeniden yapılandırılması sürecinde belirleyici güçlerden biri haline gelmiştir. Bölgesinde merkezden bağımsız olmuş, fiili egemenliklerini devam ettirmiş, kurulan hükümetlerde önemli konumlar kazanmış ve Irak'ın iç ve dış politikasında etkili olmuşlardır. Bu bağlamda Irak cumhurbaşkanlığı Kürtlere geçmiştir. Bugün Kürtler işgalcilerin sayesinde Irak’ı yönetiyorlar.


Nitekim PKK'nın Kürt bölgesel yönetiminin hakim olduğu bölgelerde konuşlanması, korunması, silah, para, istihbarat ve lojistik destek alması da günümüze kadar taşınmıştır. Bu arada Kürtler bölgelerini genişletme isteği yoğunluk kazanmıştır. 2003’ten sonra geçmişte hayal bile edemeyecekleri hakları elde eden Irak Kürtleri, Bugün Irak’tan toprak talep ediyorlar, Kürtlerin ana amacı Kerkük’e ithal edilen 700 bin Kürt nüfusu bahane ederek petrol zengini Türkmen şehri Kerkük’ü sınırları içine katmak ve hayal ettikleri Kürt devletini (İkinci İsrail’i) kurmaktır.


Dış güçlerin yardımıyla bir Sonraki hedef ise Türkiye, İran ve Suriye’den de toprak talebinde bulunmak. Kürtlerin senaryosu bu ülkelerde de sahneye konulmuştur; kimlik tanıma, anadilde eğitim, özerklik veya federasyon ve son hedef ise Kürt devleti (ikinci İsrail’i) kurmaktır, bilinmelidir ki, bu bir komplo teorisi değildir. Irak’ta bu senaryo 50 sene önce sahneye konulmuştu, Irak’ın durumu ortada! Şimdi ise bu senaryo (kimlik tanıma, anadilde eğitim, özerklik veya federasyon) Türkiye’de sahneye konuldu, yani cehennemin kapısı Türkiye’ye de açılıyor! akıllı anlar.


Bölge ülkeleri, olup bitenleri çok iyi takip etmeli ve birbirleri ile işbirliğine girmelidir. Irak’ta gelişecek ayrılıkçı bir Kürt hareketinin, hele bir Kürt devletinin bölge ülkelerini etkilemeyeceğini düşünmek mümkün müdür?


Irak Krallığı 30 Mayıs 1932 tarihinde, Milletler Cemiyeti tarafından hazırlanan deklarasyonu kabul ettiğini bildirmiş ve 29 Haziran tarihinde Milletler Cemiyeti’ne Irak Krallığı’nın onayladığı deklarasyonu sunarak, Irak, 1932 yılında bir bütün ve sınırları belirlenmiş ‘tam bağımsız’ bir devlet olarak Milletler Cemiyeti’ne üye olmuştur. Yani Irak, Birleşmiş Milletler ve komşuları tarafından tanınan bir bütün ve sınırları belirlenmiş bir ülkedir, bütün dünyada bunu kabul etmiştir. O zaman Irak’ı parçalamak için tezgahlanan bu oyuna, Kürtlere neden dur diyen yok. Kürtler bu sınırsız ve bitmez istekleri Irak halkı arasında Kürtlere karşı kin ve nefret duygusu uyandırmaktadır. İşgalciler 2011’in sonuna kadar Irak’tan gidecek, Kürtleri kim koruyacak?


Kürtlerin hayal ettikleri Irak, Türkiye, İran, Suriye ve Ermenistan topraklarında sözde Kürt devletinin (ikinci İsrail’in) sınırları : İskenderun Körfezi’nin batısından başlayan sınır, Amanos’un doğu ucu ve Toros Dağı’nın otlakları boyunca kuzeydoğu yönünde, Kahramanmaraş ve Malatya’nın yanından geçerek Fırat Nehri’nin batı kıyısı boyunca kıvrılır. Kuzeye doğru ilerler ve Dersim(Tunceli) yaylalarını içine alarak Karasu’nun (Fırat Nehri’nin batısı) oluşturduğu halka boyunca doğuya döner. Buradan Karasu’nun yukarı kısımları boyunca, Erzurum’un içinden geçerek genişler. Bu noktada Kars ilinin bazı bölümlerini içine alarak kuzey-kuzeydoğu yönüne kayar, Türkiye sınırlarını geçerek Ermenistan’daki Alagöz Dağı boyunca ilerler. Nahçivan’ı içine alacak biçimde keskin bir dönüşle Erivan’ın güneyine yönelir, Koy’un doğusundan geçerek Salamas, Urmiye ve Uşnu’yu içine alacak biçimde Urmiye Gölü’nün batı kıyıları boyunca ilerler. Urmiye Gölü’nün güneyinden küçük bir açıyla doğuya yönelir; Miyandup ve Bicar’ın etrafını dolanır. Uzun Kızıl Nehir’in yukarı kısmını keserek Kangavar’a değin gider. Buradan güneybatıya doğru büyük bir yay çizerek Kirmanşah’ı içine alır ve Luristan’ın kuzey sınırındaki Maniş Kuh’ta sonlanır.


Bu noktadan sonra, hilalin iç kenarını oluşturacak şekilde kuzeybatı yönünde ilerler, Hanakin’de İran-Irak sınırının yakınından geçerek Zohab ve Mahidaş ovalarını içine alır. Kızlarbat yakınlarında Diyala Nehri’ni geçerek kuzey-kuzeybatıya yönelir. Kifri ve Kerkük yakınlarından geçerek Altun Köprü’de Küçük Zap’ı keser. Buradan batıya dönerek Karakoç Dağı’nı ve Erbil Yaylası’nı içine alır. Eski Kelek’te Büyük Zap’ı geçerek Musul ve Duhok’a değin Maglup Dağı’nın güney ucunu takip eder ve simayl’e ulaşır. Ardından Dicle’yi kesip önce güneye sonra kuzeye yönelerek Habur yakınlarından geçer ve Sincar Dağı’nı içine alır. Daha sonra batıya yönelerek Yukarı Cezire’nin kuzeyinden geçer. Oradan Tur Abdin ve Karacadağ’ın güney yamacını izler, Türkiye-Suriye sınırı boyunca batıya doğru ilerleyerek Kamışlı, Mardin, Şanlıurfa ve Kilis yakınlarından geçer ve İskenderun Körfezi’nin batısında son bulur. Kürtler, Sözde Türkiye’nin doğusu (Kuzey Kürdistan), Irak’ın kuzeyi (Güney Kürdistan), İran’ın kuzey batısı (Doğu Kürdistan) ve Suriye’nin kuzeyine (Batı Kürdistan) diye gönderme yapıyorlar.


Kürtler, kendilerine ait olmayan toprakları ısrarla talep etmeleri ve bölgeyi sürekli kargaşa ve kaosa sürüklemeleri, bölge insanları ve devletlerinin sabrını taşırmaktadır. bilinmelidir ki başkalarının haklarına tecavüz eden Kürtler, Kürt toplumunun sonunu getirecektir.

ALİ KERKÜKLÜ

ITM

IRAQI TURKMEN MEDIA CENTRE

Iraqi Kurds raise stakes as they vow to annex parts of Mosul

By Shirzad Abdulraham
Azzaman, July 18, 2009

In a move that will certainly fuel tensions in an already restive region, Iraqi Kurds have threatened to annex large swathes of land which have traditionally been part of the Sunni-Arab dominated city of Mosul.

The two main Kurdish factions – Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) – have vowed to add at least 16 administrative divisions currently linked to the Province of Nineveh to Kurdish-held areas.

The Province of Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, has historically been a mosaic of religions, sects and ethnic groups.The Kurdish autonomous region officially includes three provinces – Arbil, Dahouk and Sulaimaniya. But it seems there is no end to KDP and PUK’s insatiable desire to expand their dominions.But since the 2003-U.S. invasion, the province’s territorial borders have been something like 'moving sands.’The Kurds, taking advantage of the chaos that followed the downfall of former leader Saddam Hussein, deployed their militias, known as peshmerga even in the provincial capital Mosul.

Apparently the Kurds are adamant to add large portions of Nineveh to their areas, including the oil-rich area of Ain Zala.An anti-Kurdish front is emerging in Mosul with political parties and tribes coming together to halt Kurdish expansion at the province’s expense.With the Shiite-dominated government in Baghdad warming up to Iraqi Arab Sunnis, there are fears of government troops taking sides in the standoff.Most of the towns and districts the Kurds want to annex are inhabited by Iraqi ethnic and religious minorities like Shebeks, Yazidis and Christians.

Many of them now fear of being used as scapegoats for Kurdish covetous intentions.

Christians are under immense pressure in Mosul, a city which used to have one of the largest Christian groups in the country.

Christians living in the string of villages to the east and north of Mosul, currently under Kurdish control, fear retaliation by insurgents fighting U.S. troops and Kurdish militias at the same time.

Some of these villages are only a few kilometers (miles) away from Mosul.

Kurdish expansionism in Kerkuk: no respect for Turkmen cemetery

THE KURDS HAVE SET THEIR EYES ON TURKMEN GRAVES
By/Savaş TAZELİ

It has been found out that the Kurds will build a shopping mall in an area where stands a graveyard in Kirkuk’s Musallah neighborhood. According to received information, some graves have been destroyed by earthmovers.

In the statement of the Iraqi Turkmen Front on the issue, it was asserted that efforts would be undertaken to stop the project as the construction site did not belong to the Kirkuk Foundations Directorate.

Najat Hussein, a member of the Turkmen Bloc in Kirkuk Provincial Council explained that “lately the Kurds had begun to seize the lands in Kirkuk and an estate of 650 m2 was rented to a citizen of Kurdish origin from Jamjamal district upon his recent request from the Sunni Foundation to build a shop in an area nearby the Musallah graveyard, but that he occupied an additional 900 m2 of land without the Foundation’s knowledge”.

Meanwhile, it was stated that a protest demonstration was organized in Musallah neighborhood by Turkmens who reacted against this practice on grounds that traces of the Turkmens were destroyed. The graves which were removed with earthmovers includes graves which belong to the Turkmens as well as the tomb of the Kirkuk Turkmen popular hero Noureddin Imam who fought back the British occupation after World War I. Additionally, there are also accounts that the Kirkuk based familial registers of some Turkmen families are being transferred to Baghdad city without their knowledge.

It has been stated that the Iraq Human Rights Center have reported this human rights violation which is an encroachment to Turkmen’s cultural rights, in written form to the Baghdad office of the UN Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI), Human Rights Commission of the Iraqi Parliament, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Human Rights, and that a request for investigation was made.

Southward movements by Kurdish northern Iraq alarms Baghdad

World Tribune
March 10, 2009WASHINGTON — The Kurdish autonomous region in northern Iraq has been moving toward a military confrontation with the government in Baghdad, a report said.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Kurdish Regional Government in northern Iraq appeared to be expanding south in a move that has alarmed Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki.

In a report by former U.S. Defense Department official Anthony Cordesman, CSIS asserted that rising Kurdish-Arab tensions already blocked elections in four provinces in January 2009."The Kurds have shown an interest in controlling parts of the greater Mosul area and towns as far south as Sinjar," the report said. "There is a serious and potentially violent struggle for the control of Kirkuk and the oil fields around it, and for cities in Diyala like Khanqin and Jalawa.

This threatens to both divided the ISF [Iraqi security forces] along Kurdish and Arab lines, and weaken ISF efforts to fully defeat Al Qaida in Iraq."Titled "How Soon is Safe: Iraqi Force Development and Conditions-based U.S. Withdrawals," the report outlined the growing Kurdish threat to Iraqi stability.

Cordesman said the Kurdish-Arab confrontation could supersede the Al Qaida threat amid the struggle over control of the oil-rich region of Kirkuk."As yet, there is no agreed dividing line between Kurdish areas of control and the control of the central government," the report said.

"The Kurdish police force, and its Peshmerga militia, often operate independently of the Iraqi Ministries and beyond [U.S.-led coalition] MNSTC-I's advisory effort."The report said two of the Iraq Army's 10 division are "effectively Kurdish."

Another two divisions have been formed out of Kurdish security forces based in northern Iraq.

Moreover, Kurdish units in the Iraq Army were refusing orders from Baghdad. In August 2008, at least one Kurdish brigade in the Diyala province — the Peshmerga 34th Garmiyan Brigade — refused orders from the central government and said it would only honor directives from KRG.

KRG receives about 17 percent of the state budget from Baghdad."The Kurdish expansion of control outside of the KRG zone has alarmed many Iraqi Arabs and U.S. officials," the report said.

So far, KRG operates a military, police and security force — which total 100,000 — separate from the Interior Ministry in Baghdad. The report said the Kurds also procure weapons independent of the central government. In September 2008, a large shipment of small arms and ammunition arrived in Suleimaniya for KRG, a move that triggered protests from Baghdad.

The report said two rival political movements control separate elements of the Kurdish security forces. The PUK was said to be better trained and equipped than the rival KDP."The disposition, equipment levels, and training of the forces under the KRG remain unclear," the report said. "However, unofficial reports from U.S. military sources indicate that, in the PUK area at least, the Peshmerga have been organized into a brigade-centric infantry force with some armor and artillery and support units."


www.uruknet.info?p=52527
Link: www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/me_iraq0203_03_10.asp

Iraqi Kurds on expansion path

REPORTS say that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been raising its flags and deploying its military in areas outside of their official borders after US President Barack Obama announced his 18-month scheduled to withdraw the bulk of US soldiers from the country.

The Kurds of northern Iraq a long record of conflict the ousted regime of the late Saddam Hussein. They have been exercising autonomy under US protection from Saddam Hussein's authority since the war over Kuwait in 1991. And since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq and ouster of Saddam Hussein, they have also assumed a high-profile role in the central authorities in Baghdad.

They run their own military and has negotiated oil agreements with foreign companies in defiance of the central government. Despite the Iraqi president being a Kurd, relations between the Baghdad government and the KRG are under strain.

The root cause is clear: It is known that the Kurds are marking time to exercise their options and stride towards realising their dreams to set up an independent Kurdistan in northern Iraq. They have never allowed this goal to get out of their sights and all their decisions and actions have been geared towards this end. They want the oil-rich Kirkuk region to be part of their sought-for state and are steadily bringing out demographic changes in the area to serve this goal.
They now explain that they fear that they would be subjected to persecution by the Shiite-dominated central government after the partial withdrawal of American forces by August 2010, and hence their move to expand their sphere of influence and authority.
Armed Kurdish guards have occupied cities and towns beyond the frontiers of the three- province autonomous zone that is ruled by Kurdish parties under agreement with the central government.

A report quotes a Kurdish military officer as explaining that "Saddam kicked out Kurds, Arabs came in. Kurds are back, Arabs fled. If the Iraqi army comes, they will stab us in the back and expel Kurds again."

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki faces a tough challenge from the Kurds, who have a large stockpile of sophisticated weapons and know how to use them effectively. Clearly, the Kurdish moves are in a coalition course with the Maliki government and this could ignite yet another civil war in the country when the Americans leave.

The International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based conflict management advisory group, has warned that opposing territorial claims could lead to military clashes.

"As US forces are set to draw down in the next couple of years, Washington's leverage will diminish and, along with it, chances for a workable deal," the ICG says. "The most likely alternative to an agreement is a new outbreak of violent strife over unsettled claims in a fragmented polity governed by chaos and fear."

Again, the onus is on the US to ensure that this does not happen. Washington, whose support was central to the Kurdish existence as an autonomous state during the Saddam Hussein era, should have the leverage necessary to restrain the Kurds; unless of course the Obama administration backs the disastrous proposal made by Vice-President Joseph Biden three years ago: Split Iraq into three. If Washington does not move with sufficient time in advance and deal with the Kurds, that is the natural inference.

http://www.godubai.com/gulftoday/article.asp?AID=25&Section=Editorial

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

Kurds have forced 13,000 Arab Families from Diyala Province: Iraqi MPs

Arab members of parliament have upped their criticism of Kurdish militia practices in provinces bordering their semi-independent enclave.

Latest accusations include the forcing of 13,000 Arab families to flee the restive Province of Diyala of which Baaquba is the capital.

Kurdish militias are present in larges numbers in the provinces of Diyala, Nineveh, of which Mosul is the capital, and Tameem of which Kirkuk is the capital.

These three provinces are now among the most restive in the country. Many in Iraq now openly blame the Kurds for the rise in the tide of violence in them.

"Kurdish Peshmerga (militias) are supposed to preserve security in these areas but they have forced 13,000 Arab families to flee Diyala," said Mohammed al-Dayni, an Arab parliamentary deputy.

He said Kurdish militias were in control of government buildings in the three provinces and were determined to bring about "demographic changes" in them.

He said conditions were precarious in the three provinces particularly in Nineveh where thousands of Christian families have fled the provincial capital Mosul.

Most Arab deputies in the parliament oppose Kurdish practices and Dayni said "a broad coalition" is gathering momentum in the parliament to force Kurdish militias to leave the three provinces.

Kurds are adamant to add the oil-rich Kirkuk to their areas and have sent their militias into the city of Mosul and large swathes of Diyala.

Kurdish politician and Deputy Fouad Maasoum denied the accusations.

He said the Kurds were part of the ruling coalition "and it is not logical for us to carry out actions that will be embarrassing for us and distance the Iraqi people from us."

By Mustafa Amara
www.azzaman.com

Kurdish involvement in attacks on Assyrians in Mosul

Kurdish Involvement Suspected in Attacks on Assyrians in Mosul

GMT 10-17-2008 5:8:5

Assyrian International News Agency

Mosul, Iraq (AINA) -- The continuing attacks on Assyrians in Mosul have been followed by a string of accusations from different sources claiming Kurdish involvement in the events that has forced 15000 Assyrians to flee the city of Mosul. Iraqi MP Osama Al Najifi, a native of the Mosul area, was the first high ranking official to point to Kurdish involvement in the attacks (AINA 10-12-2008). More recently a spokesman from Iraq's interior ministry said there is no evidence of Al Qaeda involvement (AINA 10-16-2008), and a high ranking Assyrian leader, Mr Yonadam Kanna, also a member of parliament, confirmed to reporters the assailants were wearing army uniforms. Adding to the suspicion, five known Sunni insurgent groups, including Al Qaeda, issued statements denouncing the attacks and denying involvement in them.

Several observers have noted the attacks, which started two weeks ago, have occurred in the eastern side of the city, which is controlled of Kurdish forces. Assyrians (also known as Chaldeans and Syriacs) living in the western part have not been harmed, but on Tuesday a bomb went off in front of a church in the western, Arab dominated part of the city -- only after accusations of Kurdish involvement started being made.

Condemnations of the violence were issued by Kurdish leaders only after growing accusations in Iraq against the Kurds. The extensive measures taken by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in ordering its ministries and departments to provide aid to the affected Assyrian families, according to a KRG press release, could reflect a growing Kurdish desperation to divert attention from the mounting accusations it is facing. The KRG has not bothered to help Assyrians during previous periods of attacks against them.

Some media reports have described the recent attacks as retaliation by Islamic groups because of Assyrian demonstrations against the removal of their quota seats in the provincial councils (AINA 10-6-2008). Assyrians have, however, protested and taken to the streets several times since the war started and some 50,000 Assyrians take to the streets each year on April 1st, celebrating the Assyrian New Year, without any retaliation by terrorist groups.

Suspicions of Kurdish involvement are also strengthened by the unspoken aim of the Kurdish leadership of annexing large parts of the Nineveh province into their semi-autonomous region. The two main Kurdish parties, the KDP and PUK, hold 32 of 41 seats in the Nineveh Provincial Council and dominate its executive council. Police and army units in Mosul are comprised mostly of ethnic Kurds, and the Kurdish intelligence service the Asayesh, has been confirmed to operate in the Mosul area. Kurdish political and military control in the Nineveh province and its capital Mosul are considerable.

The Assyrians, who together with other non Muslim minorities dominate the Nineveh Plain area east of Mosul, have found themselves stuck in the midst of a power struggle between Arabs and Kurds. Attempts to provide adequate security for the minorities in the Nineveh Plain have been obstructed by the Kurdish majority in the Nineveh Province Council. The Kurds have stopped the implementation of a government order from June 2006 calling for the establishment of a local (Assyrian) police force for the Nineveh Plain (AINA 5-1-2008).

The Kurdish leadership has announced it aims to annex the Nineveh Plain into its semi-autonomous region. The obstruction of the local police force is believed to be a result of this. While hindering a legitimate police force from providing much needed security for the minorities in the Nineveh Plain, the Kurdish political parties are ushering in armed groups, under the disguise of "Christian defense committees," into the Nineveh Plain. The goal is to maintain Kurdish control in the area and coerce the inhabitants into voting for annexation to the KRG in future referendums.

The TURKMENS OF ERBIL: Captives in their city

S O İ T M
The Turkmen of Erbil: captives in their city

Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation

http://www.turkmen.nl/

Date: October 08, 2008
No: Rep.28-J0808

William R. Hay, an English political officer, ruled the Erbil region from 1918 to 1920. He commented on the population of the city as follows:1

“The only two Turkish speaking populations which concern us closely are Erbil and Altun Kopri”. “One mahalla or quarter of the town (Erbil) is purely Kurdish, and in the rest the lower classes resemble the Kurds in appearance and dress. All can speak Kurdish fluently, but the language of their homes is Turkish. In the upper town which contains 6000 inhabitants, the purest Turkish element is found” “Starting from with the Nebi Yunus on the bank of the Tigris opposite Mosul, and running down through Erbil, Altun Kopri, Kerkuk, Kifri and Kizil Rabat to Mendeli we find a line of towns with Turkmen speaking inhabitants”

The Kurdish arrival to the region is portrayed by Hay on several occasions:2, 3

“Dizai tribe descended from the hills about 3 centuries ago, and occupied a few villages round Qush Tappah. In the middle half of the 19th century they started to expand, and rapidly covered the whole country up to Tigris. In the late 1920s, they constitute one third of the Erbil district population.” “It is reported that less than a century ago trees and shrubs were plentiful on the slopes of Qara Choq Dagh; when the Kurds came, however, they were quickly taken for fire woods and no trace of them now remains”

Today Erbil is a heavily populated city and has been declared capital of the Kurdish region. No less than one third of the city’s population is Turkmen. Under the aggressive hegemonic policy of Kurdish tribal parties, the Turkmen of Erbil are marginalized, intimidated and exposed to suppression and assimilation.

Marginalization

The Turkmen parties got only 2000 votes in the Iraqi general election in Erbil. Seats in the city council are shared between members of two Kurdish parties; the KHP & KUP. Policy dictates that appointment of governmental offices and positions are to be made to members of Kurdish political parties only, thus depriving the Turkmen who are not members of Kurdish parties from governmental posts. The estimated number of employees in Kurdish region is about a million.4

Turkmen are being discriminated against and are seldom appointed to hold governmental offices or in the university in Erbil. Those who want to be appointed must show allegiance to the Kurdish parties and support their party’s ideology.

Assimilation

In April 2005, Kurdish security agents broke in to Turkmen institutions and took over 24 buildings: Nine primary and four secondary schools, the buildings for education, health, information, Turkmen Unions and syndicates, Turkmen House, Shifa dispensary, the Turkmen Radio and Television, Turkmeneli print house, the building of headquarters of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Erbil, the building of Iraqi Turkmen National Party and the building of the Turkmeneli party.

The educational quality in the Turkmen schools was deliberately worsened which lead to a decrease in the number of students; the student registration have been stopped in 2008. The name of the Turkmeneli Television and Radio were changed and are now used as propaganda instruments by those Turkmen that work for the Kurdish parties and whom are paid by the Kurdish authorities. The Turkmeneli newspaper has not been published in Erbil and the Turkmeneli print house has been out of use. The Turkmen department of the Institution for Teachers was closed. Turkmen publications are not allowed to be sold in shops and put in the libraries. Cafés and public houses can not operate Turkmen TV and radio and can not keep the Turkmen publications, such as newspapers in their premises.

Suppression and intimidation

The suppressive policy of the Kurdish administration hinders the appearance of Turkmen civil society activists and stall establishment of Turkmen civil society and political organizations. The Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) is the only Turkmen organization which could resist the suppressive policy of the Kurdish authorities, but its functioning is severely restricted. The ITF is not allowed to realize political, social and cultural activities only inside the small buildings of the organization. Governmental buildings cannot be rented. Those who present logistic support to Turkmen organizations will be intimidated. During election campaigns Turkmen were allowed hang their posters and flags only on their own buildings.

The daily critics to the Turkmen organizations, by the newspapers of which the majority are controlled by the Kurdish political parties puts continuous psychological stress on the Turkmen of Erbil and particularly, on the small numbers of the politicians and activists who could resist the suppression.

Mr. Nadhim Abd al-Karim al-Saig was the chief of the news division of the Turkmeneli Radio and television which was taken over by Barzani’s administration. Resisting the intimidations and threats of the Kurdish authorities, he is active in different fields: media, politics and civil society. He was arrested by Kurdish Peshmerge militia on 30 Augustus 2008 in the center of Erbil city, when he photographed the entrance of the Erbil citadel, which is located in the center of the city and officially considered a historical landmark. When they found a number of Turkmen newspapers with him, he was taken to a center of Peshmerge militia. There he was exposed to a harsh interrogation. He was accused of spying and taken to the inspection department of the Peshmerge headquarters. The authority which received him asked those who brought him if any one knew of his arrest. They answered that his son was with him. It is worth noting that there are thousands of missing persons in the vast regions which controlled by KDP and KUP. The investigation continued for 2 hours and the investigators were a colonel and other with higher rank. He was cursed at, insulted, harshly beaten and accused of different charges. He was put in a prison, where about 40 other prisoners were being detained and he was threatened to be questioned even more harshly. In contrary, the second interrogation was much calmer and he was asked to abandon writing against the Kurdish administration. Later on, he was released and asked not to talk to any one and write about his arrest.

This is one of the many suppressive methods, which the Turkmen of Erbil are exposed to since the institution of the Save Haven in 1991, to intimidate the Turkmen of Erbil. These have decreased severely the engagement of the Turkmen of Erbil in the cultural, social and political activities. The small number of the Turkmen activists who resists the intimidation of the Kurdish authorities lives in fear of arrest, exposure to persecution, disappearance and assassination.

Reference:
1. William R. Hay, “Two Years in Kurdistan 1918 – 1920”, (William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London and Beccles 1921), P. 81 – 83
2. Ibid., P. 77
3. Ibid., P. 19
4. Judit Neurink, “another copy of Saddam Regime”, July 2007,

http://archief.trouw.nl/artikel?REC=TR_ART_00225426

KURDISH GROUPS BEHIND ATTACKS ON ASSYRIANS IN MOSUL: IRAQI MP

GMT 10-12-2008 Assyrian International News Agency

Baghdad (AINA) -- Osama Al Najifi, a member of Iraq's parliament, told the Iraqi Independent Press Agency on Sunday he holds the Iraqi government responsible for what is happening to the Assyrian Christians in Mosul, and accused the "Kurdish militias" for carrying out the acts of ethnic cleansing.

Al Najifi, a native of Mosul, claimed the Kurdish Peshmerga forces and the Kurdish Asayesh intelligence service are carrying out the attacks under the cover of the Iraqi military.

He pointed out the military forces in Mosul are completely infiltrated by the Kurdish militia. Al Najifi said the Kurds carry out the attacks against the minority groups in order to Kurdify the city and change its demographic balance.

Osama Al Najifi is a Sunni Arab and has a long record of defending the rights of the minorities in the Iraqi parliament.

He emphasized that the Kurdish parties have had de facto control over Mosul for more than one year and are trying to control the city and change its demographic identity to serve Kurdish interests.

Al Najifi also blamed the Iraqi government for being absent from Mosul, accusing the "big parliamentary groups" of making political agreements which are preventing the national government from having control over the province of Nineveh and its provincial capital Mosul.

Kurds extend role beyond Autonomous Borders

Strip of Iraq 'on the Verge of Exploding'

Kurds Extend Role Beyond Autonomous Borders, Angering Arabs

By Amit R. PaleyWashington Post Foreign ServiceSaturday, September 13, 2008; A01
JALAWLA, Iraq -- Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a roughly 300-mile-long swath of territory beyond the borders of their autonomous region in northern Iraq, stationing thousands of soldiers in ethnically mixed areas in what Iraqi Arabs see as an encroachment on their homelands.

The assertion of greater Kurdish control, which has taken hold gradually since the war began and caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flee their homes, is viewed by Iraqi Arab and U.S. officials as a provocative and potentially destabilizing action.

"Quickly moving into those areas to try and change the population and flying KRG flags in areas that are specifically not under the KRG control right now -- that is counterproductive and increases tensions," said Maj. Gen. Mark P. Hertling, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, referring to the Kurdistan Regional Government, which administers the autonomous region.

The long-cherished dream of many of the world's 25 million ethnic Kurds is an independent state that encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. All but Iraq adamantly oppose Kurdish autonomy, much less a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurds continue to insist they are not seeking independence, even as they unilaterally expand the territory they control in Iraq.

The predominantly Arab-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in recent weeks has sent the Iraqi army to drive Kurdish forces out of some of the lands, ordering Kurdish troops, known as pesh merga, to retreat north of the boundary of the Kurdish autonomous region.
The face-off between the Iraqi army and pesh merga has stoked fears of Arab-Kurdish strife just as Iraqis begin to recover from years of sectarian violence between Shiites and Sunnis.

A week-long journey across four provinces that abut the southern boundary of the autonomous region illustrated just how pervasive the Kurdish presence has become. Pesh merga fighters were seen manning 34 checkpoints, most of them proudly flying the Kurdish flag, some as far as 75 miles south of the regional border. Kurds say they have historical claims to the territory, citing then-President Saddam Hussein's use of violence and coercion to drive Kurds from their lands in the 1970s.

Although officials in Washington and Baghdad have focused on the Arab-Kurd conflict in Kirkuk, the ethnically mixed, oil-rich city where more than 100 people have been killed in political violence this year, the animosities between the two ethnic groups fester throughout Nineveh, Tamim, Salahuddin and Diyala provinces. Arabs and Kurds in various areas often have unique grievances, confounding efforts to reach an all-encompassing solution.

Kurdish leaders have maintained warm relations with U.S. officials, who have seen the Kurds as allies in the effort to promote democracy and stability in Iraq. The Kurdish region, compared with other parts of the country, is a zone of relative peace and prosperity.

In Jalawla, a majority-Arab town in Diyala province eight miles south of the Kurdish regional boundary, Kurdish authorities have gradually expanded their role over the past year. The pesh merga, the Kurdish police and the Asayesh, the Kurdish intelligence agency, all patrol the region. The Kurdish government provides a larger share of the area's annual budget -- $15 million -- than Iraq's government does, according to the town's Kurdish mayor, who lives north of the Kurdish regional boundary because it is safer.

"Who could argue that we have not already made this area part of the Kurdish regional government?" asked Nihad Ali, acting commander of a 150-person Kurdish detachment now based in Jalawla, at a headquarters that flies the Kurdish flag next door to the fledgling local Arab police force. "Who spent all the money here? Whose martyrs spilled their blood here? These people are totally reliant on the Kurds. We cannot abandon them."

But Arab residents of this town of 70,000 began to chafe over what they described as a campaign to drive them out of their lands. Ahmed Saleh Hennawi al-Nuaimi, an Arab tribal leader in Jalawla and a former army officer under President Saddam Hussein, said the Kurds had imprisoned, kidnapped and killed more than 40 Arabs recently in an attempt to promote "Kurdification," accusations that Kurdish officials reject.

"We are now subject to two occupations -- one by the Americans and one by the Kurds," said Nuaimi, who claimed the area is 85 to 90 percent Arab, although Kurds estimate the figure is closer to 50 or 60 percent. "The Kurdish one is much worse by far and is driving the people to become terrorists. This area is now on the verge of exploding."

With prodding from angry Arabs such as Nuaimi, the Iraqi army last month ordered the pesh merga's 34th Brigade to withdraw within 24 hours from Jalawla and the surrounding area.
The Kurds initially refused. Kurdish officials said they killed only insurgents and were in the area to protect civilians, not occupy territory. But after high-level political negotiations, the 4,000-member brigade pulled back to the mainly Kurdish city of Khanaqin, about 16 miles south of the Kurdish border. Two weeks later, a suicide bomber targeting Arab police recruits in Jalawla killed at least 28 people, an attack the Kurds blamed on Sunni insurgents, and Arabs blamed on Kurds.
Last week, Kurdish officials also agreed to withdraw the pesh merga from Khanaqin as long as the Iraqi army agreed not to enter.

"We cannot stand by with crossed hands and do nothing in the disputed areas while Kurds are being killed," said Jafar Mustafa Ali, the Kurdish regional government's minister of state for pesh merga affairs. "We will step in as soon as the Iraqi government leaves."

Khanaqin's mayor, Mohammed Mullah Hassan, said the city would remain under Kurdish control even if the troops all departed. "We are all pesh merga now," he said.

In Khanaqin, almost all the street signs and conversation are in Kurdish. Government buildings display the Kurdish flag instead of the Iraqi one and the picture of Massoud Barzani, the president of the Kurdish regional government, instead of Maliki. Some Arabs have been required to obtain Kurdish-issued identification cards to enter the city.

"We are not trying to control the area -- we are already controlling the area," said Fuad Hussein, Barzani's chief of staff. "There is a reality on the ground now in disputed areas across Iraq that can't be ignored."

Hussein accused Maliki of trying to seize land that belongs to Kurds. "We have the feeling that there is a hidden agenda here," he said. "They want to drive us from the area. Some of them want to drive the Kurds out of all of Iraq."

Kurdish leaders have agreed to remove pesh merga forces from areas such as Jalawla and Khanaqin to prevent any erosion of their control over a Maryland-size swath of land that makes up about 7 percent of Iraq's territory.

Kurds and Arabs across that area say it is under the authority of Kurds, even in those places without a large pesh merga presence. Even though the ultimate fate of Kirkuk is uncertain, both sides acknowledge that it is run by the Kurds: The governor is a Kurd, the majority of the provincial council is Kurdish, the military leaders of the Iraqi army units in the area are Kurdish, and the secretive Asayesh is said by both sides to have the best intelligence in town.

Many Arabs and Kurds in these areas begin conversations with recitations of their respective narratives of suffering and oppression. For the Kurds, the central villain in their recent history is Saddam Hussein, whose "Arabization" campaign drove tens of thousands of Kurds from their homelands and replaced them with Arabs. Iraqi Arabs in those areas now accuse the Kurds of employing similar tactics.

The question of where to draw the exact boundary of the Kurdish autonomous region is one of the most politically explosive issues in Iraq. The Iraqi constitution called for a reckoning of the competing claims, including a census and a referendum. But the mandated 2007 deadline for the referendum passed, and it is now unclear what will happen.

U.S. and other Western officials, fearing that the issue could imperil the security gains made over the past year, tried to persuade both sides to back a U.N. process to present reports on Kirkuk and other contested areas as part of a strategy to "defuse and deflect the referendum," said Stefan de Mistura, head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Iraq. Kirkuk, which the Kurds refer to as "Our Jerusalem" because of their emotional and historical attachment to the city, presents a particular difficulty because it lies atop an estimated 7 percent of the world's oil reserves.
"I am going to be one of the wealthiest men in the world," said Ahmed Hameed al-Obaidi, secretary general of the Arab bloc in Kirkuk. "I would never let the Kurds steal this money by making the city part of their region."

Western officials increasingly believe that a referendum in which residents of individual areas decide whether to join the Kurdish autonomous region will only spark greater conflict. De Mistura said the approach now is to have the leaders of each bloc reach a viable compromise, perhaps to be confirmed later through a straight yes-or-no referendum.

"At the end of the day, what we need is a grand deal, not a piecemeal approach," de Mistura said.
Yet far-reaching compromises seem remote from places such as Sinjar, a ramshackle city on the border with Syria that is ringed by Arab villages but controlled by Kurds. After a coordinated bombing there last year killed hundreds of Yazidis, a religious minority that some consider Kurdish, pesh merga forces tightened their control of the area, according to Arab and Christian residents.

Abdullah Ajeel al-Yawer, an Arab tribal leader near Sinjar, gathered dozens of Arabs from the area in his home on a recent morning. They described how Kurdish forces had driven them from their homes, detained and tortured them in prisons in the Kurdish region and prevented them from launching their own political party.

"They are like the Gestapo," Yawer said. "Their treatment is the same as what Saddam Hussein did."
Sarbest Terwaneshy, the head of the Kurdish Democratic Party in Sinjar and described by U.S. and U.N. officials as the most powerful figure in the region, denied the allegations against the pesh merga and said the fighters were in the area only to provide security.
"If the pesh merga leave, all the people will leave in a huge exodus," he said. "Without the Kurds, the massacre of last year would be repeated tens of times."

Kurdistan Minister -- Rich Star, or Pawn?

GMT 5-1-2008 19:55:53
Assyrian International News Agency

Like the larger-than-life hero of the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel of the roaring 20s, Iraqi Kurdistan's mysterious Minister of Finance, Sarkis Aghajan, has star power.
He is reputed to be one of the richest men in Iraq. And yet, like the fictional Jay Gatsby, no one knows anything about the sources of his wealth, his early career, or his family origin.
"We have no official biography of Mr. Aghajan as far as I know," a senior U.S. official in the Kurdish capital, Erbil, told Newsmax. "How did he make his money -- if indeed, he is personally wealthy? I haven't a clue."

Call him the Great Gatsby of Iraqi Kurdistan.

No one knows of any business experience or expertise that would explain Mr. Aghajan being given responsibility for Kurdistan's financial portfolio. What little is known of his family background suggests modest landholdings in northern Iraq and in Iran, but no vast family fortune that would explain his profligate spending.

And yet, according to confidants -- including a U.S. consultant who began his career in northern Iraq as an evangelical missionary in the early 1990s -- Mr. Aghajan has quietly disbursed tens of millions of dollars of his own money to help Iraq's embattled Christian population.
"Sarkis has been like a saint to Iraqi Christians," the consultant said. "He has housed 20,000 families who moved here from Baghdad at his own expense. He's built schools for them, and he did it all alone."

Set aside for the moment the exaggerations of a self-confessed recipient of Mr. Aghajan's favors. (Kurdish officials told Newsmax that 2,000 displaced Christian families have moved into the region, not 20,000).

The efforts by the consultant to sway reporters and other visitors, and by Mr. Aghajan himself through Ishtar TV -- a well-funded satellite channel that Mr. Aghajan established to recount his good deeds to the world -- amount to a very conscious attempt at myth-building.

Ishtar TV regularly broadcasts "celebrations" of Mr. Aghajan by "grateful" Iraqi Christians. Some sing his praises after moving into tiny prefab houses in reconstructed Christian villages in Kurdistan. Others parade about with huge photos of Mr. Aghajan at New Year's celebrations in Paris, à la Saddam Hussein.

"By providing housing and aid to displaced Christians, Sarkis wants to send a message to people who align with the KDP [Kurdish Democratic Party] that he can deliver," Dr. John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International, told Newsmax during a recent aid mission to northern Iraq.
"He is being positioned by the KDP to become the 'agha' of the Christians in Kurdistan and the Nineveh Plain," Dr. Eibner added, referring to a common term that blends the affection peasants might have for a benevolent landowner with the ruthlessness of a political overlord.

Mr. Aghajan would appear to owe his ascendancy within the KDP power structure to his personal relationship to Nichervan Barzani, the Kurdish prime minister.

His supporters say that as young men, the two were forced to flee Kurdistan with their families in 1975, after the United States withdrew support for the Barzani clan in its struggle for independence from Saddam, and grew up together on the Aghajan family estate in Iran.
Powerful, or Used?

"Some say Sarkis is using the Kurds to achieve the rights of the Christians. If that's true, I'll be the first to applaud," said William Warda, vice-president of the Hammurabi Human Rights organization, and an Assyrian nationalist. "But I don't think he's so powerful. I think the Kurds are using him,"

The KDP's political designs are transparent, says Salahuddin Bahauddin, secretary general of the opposition Kurdistan Islamic Union.

"Sarkis is being used against the Assyrian nationalist movement, which is seeking to get the Nineveh Plain region recognized as a self-governing province of Iraq, reporting directly to Baghdad," Mr. Bahauddin told Newsmax in an interview.

The Kurdish government is seeking to make Sarkis the "president of a Christian triangle" attached to the Kurdish region, the former member of the Iraqi Governing Council said.

"His role is to decorate the Kurdish Regional Government, to counter accusations of persecution against Christians by the KDP. He should be called the Minister of window-dressing," Mr. Bahauddin added.

At first glance, the image-building would appear to be a success. Wherever one travels in Christian areas in northern Iraq, Mr. Aghajan's name is on everyone's lips.

Within the Kurdish Regional Government area itself, he claims to have rebuilt 80 Christian villages destroyed by Saddam Hussein and made them available for refugees fleeing religious persecution in Baghdad and Mosul.

In Ainkawa, the Christian suburb of the Kurdish capital, Erbil, his supporters claim that he has handed out building lots, permits, and construction materials gratis to Christian refugees.

Not So Generous to Everyone
In more than a half dozen locations I visited in the Nineveh Plain, Mr. Sarkis has built tenements to house Christian refugees -- at least those who profess to support his political party, the KDP. But he is quick to cut the salaries of local officials and aid payments to refugees who express hostility to his political designs.

In a trademark program, he has financed the building of lavish new churches and Christian cemeteries throughout the region, in an effort to win the support of church leaders for his political goal of integrating the Assyrian Christians into Kurdistan.

Some of the new churches have cost millions of dollars, according to local priests and government officials, And yet, for all of the spending, no one has a clue where the money originates.
Kurdish officials told Newsmax that Mr. Aghajan had been put in charge of funds provided by the Kurdish Regional Government to aid Christians fleeing persecution.

To dole out the aid, Mr. Aghajan has established a vast network of Christian aid committees, most of which operate through local churches, to provide welfare subsidies and other assistance to the refugees.

But recipients of the aid interviewed in several refugee complexes said that welfare payments from Mr. Aghajan's committees had been cut off last July, and that they were now required to pay rent at his housing projects.

Show Me the Money
"What benefits have we had from Sarkis Aghajan until now?" complained Jamal Dinha, mayor of Bartela, a prominent Christian town in the Nineveh Plain. "I'd like to see where this money he says he is spending is going. He says he is building churches -- but most of the money disappears in corruption."

Mayor Dinha is a member of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (ADM), a nationalist party that is seeking administrative autonomy for the Nineveh plain under the Iraqi national constitution.

"We have asked Sarkis to build schools, not churches," he added. "Here in our town, Sarkis bought land for a cemetery. We say that he pays more attention to the dead than to the living."
Mr. Aghajan is credited by his supporters with convincing KDP leaders to allow Christian Evangelical churches to preach the gospel to Muslims.

Since 1992, when the first Evangelicals came to Kurdistan, some 1000 Muslim-background believers have been baptized into the Christian faith, according to Pastor Aram Daoud, who works with the Christian affairs division of the Kurdish ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs.

And yet, despite Mr. Aghajan's patronage, evangelical churches continue to receive threats.
"We baptized thirteen new believers on February 1 of this year," Pastor Daoud said. "The very next day, we received a death threat -- a fatwa -- posted on the door of our church."
Pastor Daoud's supervisor at the ministry, Khaled Jamal Alber, was quick to interject. "In Kurdistan, there is freedom of religion. No one stops us from practicing our [Christian] faith. The threats come not from the government, but from individuals."

"Sarkis has done more for Christians than any man I have known in the world, and I have been in 50+ countries," an American supporter of the Kurdish finance minister said.
"He is very quiet and does not seek recognition or remuneration. He has received just about every award given to Christians from every major denomination in the world including the Knighthood of the Order of St. George from the Pope. The next step after that is canonization!"

And yet, Mr. Aghajan's critics say that he is using the church to build a system of patronage on behalf of the KDP, with the goal of convincing Christians in the Nineveh plain to join the Kurdish region.

Using Christianity
"Personally, he is a good man, a kind man," said Father Sabri al Maqdessy, a Chaldean priest in Ainkawa. "He's trying his best to do some kind of projects for the Christians. But they are using us for propaganda for themselves."

He pointed to the huge cross at Erbil international airport as an example. "That is the first thing Westerners see at the airport. It's a symbol for them. A lot of the [Kurdish government] politicians were educated in the West. They know the strength of that message, to see a cross in a Muslim country. They think it will send a message that they treat the Christians better.
"They do treat us better -- while they take everything we have," he added. "In another ten years, we will have nothing. Christians will not own a centimeter of property. They will take it all."

Kurdish Islamic Union leader Salahuddin Bahauddin said that Mr. Aghajan and his masters in the Kurdish Democratic Party of president Massood Barzani were offered the Christians of the Nineveh plain a diabolical choice: enjoy the freedom to practice their faith as citizens of Kurdistan, but renounce their ethnic aspirations as Assyrians to an autonomous province under central government authority.

"We see Christians in the Kurdish parties, but they have been forced to give up their ethnic identity," Mr. Bahauddin told Newsmax. "We believe they should be able to keep it."

The political system established by the KDP is "autocratic and dictatorial," he added. "It's a one-party state, an adaptation of the Baath Party system of Saddam Hussein. If someone is close to the Party, he is welcome; if not, he's an outcast, even if he is a family member."

A former Iraqi aid worker in Hamdaniya, a district capital in the Nineveh Plain just outside of Mosul, told Newsmax that he had seen documents showing that Mr. Aghajan was spending U.S. aid money to help the refugees, all the while he pretended the money was his own.

"We know that this money comes from the United States," the former aid worker said. " The United States didn't want to pay the money to the central government in Baghdad. They preferred to pay it here. Since the minister of Finance is Christian they thought it would be spent in a good way to all the Christians. "

Instead, he claimed, nearly 90% of the money has disappeared into the pockets of Mr. Aghajan's cronies, with scarcely 10% reaching its intended recipients.
The aid worker insisted that Newsmax withhold his identity, for fear of reprisals from Kurdish officials.

No Contact
A U.S. official in Erbil acknowledged that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has spent approximately $31 million in the Nineveh Plain, but complained that the Kurdish regional government "lacked a transparent budget process" and had provided little or no accounting for how its funds were spent.

"Sarkis Aghajan is using this aid money for the political benefit of the KDP," said critic William Warda. "He should be telling them it's coming from the USA or from the evangelical church. But they don't say that. They say this is the KRG, and that they are doing this and that. They are cheating our people."

Newsmax made extensive efforts to contact Mr. Aghajan for comment on this article, starting with an official request for an interview through the Kurdish Regional Government office in Washington, DC.

Inquiries through the KRG in Erbil were politely rebuffed, as were efforts undertaken by a former Iraqi government minister, who personally asked Kurdish prime minister Barzani to arrange the interview.
Sources in Erbil identified a private office allegedly used by Mr. Aghajan to run his mysterious aid network. An aid at that office, who identified himself only by his first name, Gewargis, explained why efforts to contact Mr. Aghajan through his Ministry of Finance office had been unsuccessful.
"If you call those numbers, you will always get the same answer," he said. "Out of order, or turned off."

Gewargis had no explanation for why Mr. Aghajan kept four large floor safes in his personal office, which was filled with stacks of Christian books Gewargis said were being distributed by Mr. Aghajan's committees.

At the Ministry of Finance, an aid to Mr. Sarkis said he was "too busy" to receive foreign visitors. However, just minutes before Newsmax and former Iraqi government minister of Migration Pascale Warda arrived at the ministry, a team of Dutch parliamentarians were leaving after an appointment. They had come with offers of European Union aid for displaced Christians.

The criticisms of Mr. Aghajan by Christian refugees and others stemmed from a "classic gift horse in the mouth mentality," an American supporter of Mr. Aghajan told Newsmax.
"Give them a house -- they want a better one. They complain about the lack of electricity, etc., etc. The answer for Christians in Kurdistan is not to complain about a man or the government but for the international Christian community to help fill the gaps. They have not."

Despite their positive comments, even Mr. Aghajan's supporters insisted that they not be identified by name because of ongoing business relationships with the Kurdish government.

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

www.newsmax.com/

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Christians Want Police Protection in Iraq

AINA - Posted GMT 5-1-2008 9:37:55

For Christians living in the ancient sprawling town of Tel Kaif, just 10 minutes north of Mosul, geography is a curse. "We are sandwiched between the Arabs in Mosul, and the Kurds in Erbil," says William Warda, 47, who grew up in this city in the 1960s and '70s.

Local leaders are hoping that a modest proposal, currently in committee in the U.S. House of Representatives, can bring dramatic changes to their everyday lives.

The $4 million measure will fund a 711-man local police force for the Nineveh Plain. It is part of a $30 million emergency relief package for the predominantly Christian region submitted to Congress last month by Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill.

"We need to have our own security force, our own police force," Warda tells Newsmax. "But we want an official force, not a militia. It should be drawn from all the communities in the Nineveh Plain, not just Christians. And it should be part of the national police, reporting to Baghdad, not to Erbil or Mosul."

With the collapse of central government services in the region because of terrorist incursion from Baghdad, fighters loyal to Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani have set up shop in Christian towns and villages, even though the Nineveh Plain lies outside KRG authority.

While the Kurdish fighters, known as peshmergas, provide much-needed security for the area, they also commit exactions, local leaders and residents tell Newsmax.

Sometimes, the harassment is banal. In the town of Hamdaniya, for example, Barzani's men have taken over the town library and has refused to give it back.

"They have set up an intelligence headquarters there," said Ehmad Behnam, a member of the Hamdaniya district council. "We have asked them many times to go someplace else, but they refuse to leave."

In Tel Keif, students complain that they were barred from renting a hall for a high school graduation party last year by local militiamen working for the KRG Finance Minister Sarkis Aghajan, because they weren't members of his party.

Mr. Aghajan, who is Christian, has become the public face of the KRG in the Ninevah Plain, where he has built an extensive patronage system by doling out cash through local churches.
But the repression also can get ugly.

In December 2005, during Iraq's first parliamentary elections, Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) bused hundreds of peshmerga fighters and party loyalists to Christian villages on Election Day, where complacent officials opened the polls and allowed them to vote.

Once they had cast all the available ballots in one town, they would move on to the next village to vote again. "The image you see in America of people dipping their finger in purple ink after they voted was a joke here," one local official told Newsmax.

"The KDP controlled the polling places, so for them the ink was no problem," he said. "None of them was made to dip their finger in the ink."

Dozens of local officials filed formal complaints of election fraud and ballot stuffing with the Mosul governor, the central government in Baghdad, the United Nations, and the U.S. embassy, but never received a reply.
"We must have international election monitors in all these places in time for the next parliamentary elections," former Iraqi minister of migration, Pascale Warda, told Newsmax.

In Hamdaniya, the largest Christian district in the Nineveh Plain, Kurdish peshmergas simply stole the ballot boxes when local officials phoned the U.S. embassy in Baghdad to get them to send more ballots.
"Everyone in Hamdaniyah and the surrounding villages was deprived of their right to vote," said Warda.

In the early evening, well after the polls had officially closed, district council member Louis Markus Yacoub was told that fresh ballots had finally arrived.
"I was the one selected to go pick up the ballots, but the Kurdish intelligence people arrested me on the way," Yacoub said.

They yanked him out of the car in front of four policemen, and took him to the local peshmerga headquarters, where they beat him for three hours.
"They beat me in my back and my shoulders. They beat me in my face and my head. Seven people were beating me with their fists. They even broke my teeth," he said.

Yacoub says the peshmerga told him outright that they had arrested him to prevent him for picking up the fresh ballots, because they knew they would lose the elections if the Christians were allowed to vote.
"We are asking for the militas to be banned from the next elections,' said fellow council member Ehmad Ayad. "Next time, we would like the protection of the national army, with American help."

The KDP hasn't only targeted Christians. In Dohuk, teams of armed peshmerga fighters stormed the election offices of the opposition Kurdish Islamic Union, killing two party workers, including the leader of the KIU election list.

In Zakho, they killed two more KIU officials. "They were hoping to do worse, but I happened to be in Baghdad at the time and asked U.S. and British ambassadors for help," says KIU general secretary, Salahuddin Bahauddin.
After several phone calls by the ambassadors to KRG President Barzani, the peshmerga stood down. "Their plan was to attack us in other regions as well," Bahauddin told Newsmax in Erbil.
The KRG eventually agreed to pay Bahauddin's party compensation for the damage done to their buildings. But KRG officials insist that the violence was the work of individuals, not the government militia.

Such explanations fool no one in the Nineveh Plain. "If the Kurds would just take their hand off this region, the future would be very bright," said Tel Kaif Mayor Bassam Ballo.

Johnny Koshaba learned first-hand how brutal the peshmerga can be. The 34-year old Assyrian journalist was taken from his home in Tel Kaif last month and beaten after he wrote an article exposing the corruption of KRG Finance Minister Sarkis Aghajan.

"I found that the money Sarkis hands out was going to individuals who serve his policy and the Kurdish leaders' policies to take over this land," Koshaba said.
The peshmerga took him to a detention center in Sarseng -- more than an hour's drive away -- and beat him for two days while they interrogated him.
On the third day, they presented him with a "confession" written in Kurdish and told him they would release him if he signed it.
"I don't read or speak Kurdish, but I signed it anyway,' Koshaba said. "They told me I was not allowed to talk about what happened to me during my detention."

Warda, who runs the Hammurabi Organization for Human Rights and Democracy Monitoring, believes that the exactions of the peshmerga have driven Arabs in nearby Mosul into the hands of al-Qaida.

"An Arab tribal leader told me, 'we can get rid of al-Qaida in one day, but we won't, because we don't want the peshmerga to fill the vacuum,'" he said.

Al-Qaida and the Kurdish peshmerga need each other, said Dr. John Eibner, the CEO of Christian Solidarity International, who toured the region last week as part of an aid mission.
"Without al-Qaida, the United States wouldn't support the peshmerga. Without the peshmerga, the locals wouldn't support al-Qaida," he said.

It was never supposed to happen this way. Two years ago, the U.S. Army Joint Operation Center and the Iraqi Interior Ministry ordered the creation of a local police force for the Nineveh Plain, but it has twice been blocked by the officials from Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party.

Leading the charge against the local police force was the KDP deputy governor of Nineveh Province, Khisro Goran, who claimed the police would become "a Christian militia."
The KDP's motive is simple, says Michael Youash of the Iraqi Sustainable Democracy Project in Washington. "The KDP interests are outlined in a simple article of the KRG constitution. that says the Nineveh Plain shall be absorbed into the Kurdistan Region in Iraq."

Instead of allowing the creation of an authentic local police force, independent of the KDP, Barzani's party has sought to buy patronage through Finance Minister Aghajan and a cadre of "KDP Christian loyalists," Youash and others believe.

The $4 million legislative earmark being sponsored by Rep. Kirk is aimed at "removing the political bottlenecks" created by the KRG that have prevented the creation of a local police force for the Nineveh Plains until now.

Just last week, the initial complement of 711 policemen were called up and began training, Youash tells Newsmax. Another 4000 policemen will be needed to fully secure the region and establish checkpoints on all highways and roads leading into the villages.
"Standing up a local police force will help with economic development as well," said Joseph Kassab, secretary general of the Chaldean Federal of America who toured the region last month.

By Kenneth R. Timmerman www.newsmax.com
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2008, Assyrian International News Agency. All Rights Reserved. Terms of Use.