Iraqi Turkmen Front Communiqué

Written Statement from ITF

21st September 2010

Iraqi Turkmen Front reacted to the recent announcement made by President Celal Talabani about the presidency being negotiable while Kirkuk and article 140 were not. In the written statement prepared by Iraqi Turkmen Front Information Department, it was stated that no position should be monopolized by any particular party and that article 140 had run its legal course and that they opposed its implementation.

In a speech made on a televised program, President Talabani had stated that they were open to negotiating the presidency and that although this position might not be granted to the Kurds, no concessions regarding Kirkuk and the application of article 140 which is relevant to Kirkuk would be considered. The response from the Iraqi Turkmen Front following Talabani’s statement was soon to follow. In the statement published by Iraqi Turkmen Front the fact that article 140 was subject to article 142 regarding the change of the constitutional law and that the provisions of article 23 of Provincial Assembly elections should be applied to annul the changes in Kirkuk’s demographical structure was underlined.

In the statement made by Iraqi Turkmen Front Information Department, attention was called to the fact according to Law No.6 of Provincial Assembly Election Law, the registry of voters in Kirkuk for the years 2004-2009 needed to be reviewed. In its statement, Iraq Turkmen Front called all political parties in Iraq to rally for solidarity and the territorial integrity of Iraq and underlined that parties needed to act for the public good when forming coalitions for the process of establishing a government.

http://www.kerkuk.net/haberler/haber.aspx?dil=2057&metin=201009213

Iraqi Turkmen Front Communique regarding possible boycott of census by the Turkmens

Hereunder is the message addressed by Dr. Hassan AYDINLI, ITF E.U. Representative to Journalist TIMOTHY WILLIAMS , further to his article published in the NY Times “Turkmens in Contested Oil-Rich Province vow to Boycott Iraq’s National Census“:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/24/world/middleeast/24turkmen.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print


Dear Mr. Timothy Williams,

I read your article entitled “Turkmens in Contested Oil-Rich Province vow to Boycott Iraq’s National Census“ with great interest.

However, I would like to point out that there has been some confusion regarding the interpretation of the 2% mentioned in the last paragraph of the ITF Statement released on Thursday 23rd July 2009.

In order to clarify the contents of their statement and avoid any further misquoting, ITF Information Office has issued a communiqué on 25th July 2009 (please see hereunder).

I would be grateful if you could convey this important clarification to your readers.

Regards,

Dr Hassan Aydinli
ITF Europe Representative (Belgium)

QUOTE :

THE IRAQI TURKMEN FRONT
(Head Quarter)
Information Office
25th July 2009

IMPORTANT CLARIFICATION
Regarding ITF communiqué dated 23rd July 2009

We would like to clarify the contents of our statement of 23rd July 2009 – regarding the possible boycotting by the Turkmens of the general census in Iraq which is supposed to take place in October 2009 – which have been misquoted in some Western media.

In our statement we wrote: “Turkmens announce boycotting the census unless the concerned authorities respond to their demands” “the boycotting of the census by 12% of the Iraqi people will certainly make it loose its credibility”.

Census is a very important matter for a nation, it must be carried out with great care and precision, there should be no errors and all Iraqis must be counted. Even a margin of error of 1%-2% is unacceptable. Therefore, if the Turkmens who represent almost 13% of the Iraqi people were to boycott the general census it would certainly make it null and void.

Iraqi Turkmen Front
Information office

25/7/2009
Kerkuk-Baghdad St., near the Governorate building
Itc_media@yahoo.com

UNQUOTE

IRAQI TURKMEN FRONT COMMUNIQUE

الدائرة الإعلامية

ENFORMASYON DAİRESİ
العدد:106 SAYI:106

To the news desk, AP, Baghdad bureau,

Yesterday, AP put an exclusive report regarding Kerkuk, under the title ": U.N. suggests power-sharing for Kerkuk".

It seems that the reporter took the data from one side only, without even trying to interview a Turkmen politician or organization and without referring to the official Iraqi documents!

We agree that there was a bad Arabization policy under the previous regime, however, since April 2003 there is an even worse Kurdification policy which is taking place in Kerkuk.

The population of Kerkuk was 860 thousand on 9th April 2003, today it is more than 1.5 million and ALL the newcomers are Kurds.

Please see the information below:


According to the 1957 census, Turkmens were 950 thousands out of a population of six million Iraqis.

However, the 1997 census under the Arabization campaign, showed Turkmens to be only 900 thousand, i.e. less than in 1957!!

This is completely illogical and it shows the injustice Turkmens went through under the previous regime. Scientifically speaking, the annual population growth rate in Iraq is fixed (3-8%), therefore the Turkmens are at least 2.6 million, i.e 10% of the total Iraqi population. About 40% of the Turkmens live in Kerkuk.

Again, according to the 1957 census, Turkmens represented the largest ethnic component in Kerkuk, before the Kurds, the Arabs and the Christians.

According to the ration cards data base, the number of inhabitants who were expelled from Kerkuk was 11.700, out of which more than a quarter were Turkmens.

We therefore ask you to check the facts and correct your data in order to reflect the reality.

The Information Office of the Iraqi Turkmen Front

Addres:

Kerkük. Bağdat yolu. Valilik binası yanında
E-mail: ITC_media@yahoo.com

IRAQI TURKMEN FRONT COMMUNIQUE

Note:
The punctuation does not appear as in the original text of the ITF communiqué.
This problem occurs when I copy an Arabic text. Sorry.

IRAK TÜRKMEN CEPHESİ الجبهة التركمانية العراقية
(GENEL MERKEZ) (المقر العام)










الدائرة الإعلامية ENFORMASYON DAİRESİ
العدد: 75 SAYI: 75
التاريخ: 18\10\2008 TARİH:18.10.2008
تصريح


تبدو ان مشكلة كركوك التي تسعى القوى السياسية الى حلها في اطار توافقي يحمي حقوق جميع مكونات كركوك الاصليين , تتعرض كلما اقتربت من الحل الى هزات من الجانب الكردي لعرقلته
فبعد اقرار المادة 24 من قانون انتخابات مجالس المحافظات وبوادر انفراج الازمة قام الحزب الديمقراطي الكردي من خلال فرعه الثالث في كركوك الى شرعنة الاستيلاء على الاراضي والممتلكات العامة للدولة العراقية في كركوك في سابقة خطيرة بعيدة عن الدستور والقوانين . وكان هذا الفرع قد اصدر بيانا جاء فيه "من حق اهالي كركوك الاصليين والمتضررين من عمليات الانفال والتطهير العرقي ان يستولوا على الاموال العامة للدولة العراقية الموجودة تحت لارض وة فوق الأرض "
ان هذه التصريحات خرق صارخ للمادة 24 وتتعارض مع القانون الذي وافقت عليه كافة الجهات التشريعية والقانونية العليا بما فيها مجلس الرئاسة
فما هو الهدف من هذه التصريحات ؟ وما هي نتائجها ؟
ان ثوابت الجبهة التركمانية العراقية التي لم ولن تتغير هي : عراقية كركوك مع المحافظة على ثقافتها التركمانية , وتقاسم السلطة تماما و رفع كافة التجاوزات على الممتلكات العامة و التأكيد على حقوق المرحلين الأصليين و الأصليين فقط و الاعلان عن حل نهائي و حاسم لكركوك التي تشكل مفتاح الحل لجميع مشاكل العراق
و تؤيد الجبهة التركمانية العراقية وزارة الدفاع في جهودها لإخلاء كافة المواقع التابعة لها في كركوك و المحافظات الأخرى من المتجاوزين عليها
و ستبقى كركوك بإذن الله مدينة عراقية في عراق موحد ارضا و شعبا



الجبهة التركمانية العراقية
الدائرة الإعلامية



ـالعنوان: كركوك- طريق بغداد- قرب بناية المحافظة Adres:Kerkük. Bağdat yolu. Valilik binası yanında
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