29/03/2011
By MOHAMMED A. SALIH
ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan: As the United States prepare for their scheduled complete withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year, the continuation of tensions over land and resources among Iraq’s various ethnic groups could trigger a serious conflict that might pull Iraq into a state of “political paralysis” or “break-up,” warns the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) in a report on the current state of the disputed territories in northern Iraq.
The 40-page report, published on Monday, cautions against the stand-off between the Iraqi army and the Kurdish peshmarga forces in areas such as Kirkuk, which could “augur trouble for the period after US withdrawal.” In late February, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) dispatched thousands of peshmarga troops to Kirkuk and some other disputed areas in the north of Iraq, with the stated aim of trying to ward off any potential threats caused by a scheduled mass Arab protest across Kirkuk province and other areas. Kurdish officials had accused “terrorists” and elements loyal to the former regime of Saddam Hussein of attempting to use the protests as a pretext to bring down the Kurdish-controlled administrations in Kirkuk and districts in northern Diyala province.
But, the deployment of Kurdish forces created anxiety among some sections of Kirkuk’s population, according to the ICG’s report. “The Kurds are blocking Iraqi forces from entering Kurdistan without their permission, while Kurdish forces can leave their jurisdiction [at will] and come to Kirkuk,” Jamal Shan, head of the Iraqi National Turcoman Party, told the ICG. “We are concerned about the American policy, which is always right behind the Kurds. We are all aware of this American-Kurdish alliance.” The tensions in Kirkuk escalated considerably after the deployment of the peshmarga forces to the city and remarks by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, that described Kirkuk as “Kurdistan’s Jerusalem,” implying that Kurds would not let the city go.
In a statement, Iraqi Parliament Speaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab, called on all parties to “deal with Kirkuk in a way that suits its social and cultural make-up and protects peaceful coexistence among its components,” adding that the key to a solution to the Kirkuk issue was “coexistence and true partnership.” The oil-rich, multi-ethnic province of Kirkuk has been at the heart of decades-long tensions between Kurds on the one side, and other ethnic groups, particularly Arabs and the Iraqi government, on the other. Joost Hiltermann, deputy director of the ICG’s Middle East program, told Rudaw that “unless either a political deal is reached…or a workable alternative arrangement to the combined security mechanism is created without a direct US troop presence,” the chances of conflict in the ethnically-mixed areas of northern Iraq will increase.
Since August 2009, Iraq, Kurdish and US forces have formed joint patrols in the disputed areas as a confidence-building measure to pave the way for joint work between Iraqi and Kurdish troops after the pull-out of US military forces from Iraq. Hiltermann said that, despite early US “acquiescence to the Kurds' control of Kirkuk,” the US was now “increasingly impatient with Kurdish unilateral moves that could cause instability once US troops withdraw.” However, Kurdish officials say the presence of their forces in the disputed areas is meant to establish stability in these volatile regions.
Jabar Yawar, spokesman for the Kurdish Ministry of Peshmarga, said all the extra troops deployed to Kirkuk and other disputed areas had now returned to their bases in the Kurdistan region as the threats in those areas had “for the time being vanished.” But, he said there were currently four battalions of peshmarga forces in the disputed areas, in line with an agreement between the Iraqi government and the KRG. “We will have regular meetings with the Iraqi and US sides in the next eight months in order to agree on a mechanism of cooperation to ensure stability in Kirkuk and other areas,” Yawar told Rudaw. As part of a “status of forces agreement” between the US and Iraqi governments in 2008, the US has to withdraw all its forces from Iraq by the end of 2011.
But, there have been unverified media reports that the US might leave behind a residual force to train and advise the Iraqi military beyond that date. Some observers have suggested that the US should keep some troops in the disputed regions in order to avert any possibility of conflict in those areas. Yawar said that, as Kurds, they wanted the US forces to stay in Kirkuk after 2011, but “it is up to the Iraqi and US governments to make a deal on whether the US troops should stay in Iraq or not.”
In order to facilitate an agreement on the disputed areas, the ICG advises the Iraqi and Kurdish governments to “resume negotiations on the full range of pertinent issues, including the status of disputed territories, a hydrocarbons law, a revenue-sharing law, provincial elections in Kirkuk and a national census.” It also calls for Kirkuk to be granted a “special status as a stand-alone governorate, under neither Baghdad’s nor Erbil’s direct control, for an interim period,” and for the devising of a “mechanism for ultimately resolving its status with a power-sharing arrangement in which political representatives of the main ethnic and religious groups are represented fairly.” While concerns about the fate of Kirkuk persist, there are signs that a possible deal among the province’s various ethnic groups might be possible.
In what appeared to be a deal between the Kurds and Kirkuk’s main Turcoman party, the province’s top administrators were replaced Tuesday. Najmaddin Karim, a member of Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), and Hassan Turhan, a senior official of the Iraqi Turcoman Front (ITF), now occupy the posts of governor and head of Kirkuk’s Provincial Council respectively. The two posts were, until now, occupied by two Kurdish officials.
The change could represent a deal between the Kurdish and Turcoman parties to divide power, perhaps reflecting the improving ties between Iraqi Kurds and Turkey. Several past agreements between the Kurds and successive Iraqi governments have collapsed because of disagreements over the fate of Kirkuk, resulting in renewed conflict. Following the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, Kurds managed to assert control over the local administrations in Kirkuk and Kurdish-dominated parts of Diyala and Nineveh provinces.
But, their domination of those areas has met with stiff resistance from many ethnic Arabs and Turcomans, who fear the Kurds are planning a change of demography in their own favor in the disputed areas. Iraq’s constitution, drafted in 2005, has set up a roadmap for the peaceful settlement of the fate of the disputed areas. The roadmap calls for the allowing of families expelled from these areas – mostly Kurds and Turcomans – to return to their homes, while demanding Arab families brought to Kirkuk and other disputed territories by Hussein’s government to be compensated so that they can go back to their original areas in the southern and central parts of the country.
It also mandates a population census in the disputed areas, to be followed by a referendum where the areas’ residents will decide whether they want to join the Kurdistan region or be governed by the federal government in Baghdad. Although the roadmap was to be implemented by the end of 2007, the process is still in its early stages, with no clear date in sight as to when the referendum will take place.
With a comprehensive deal concerning Kirkuk yet to emerge, Hiltermann called on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Iraq (UNAMI) to publicly release a report it had drafted in 2009 that contains recommendations for possible solutions to the disputed areas. “[UNAMI] should now release [the report] and facilitate the start of direct talks between Baghdad and Erbil. If it has been quiet, it has been because Iraqis were immersed in electoral politics, the elections, and then forming a government, but it now no longer has this excuse.
It's time for UNAMI to step up to the plate. It is not visibly doing so yet,” said Hiltermann.
http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/iraq/3525.html
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Kerkuk. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est Kerkuk. Afficher tous les articles
mercredi 30 mars 2011
jeudi 3 mars 2011
الوهم الكردي في كركوك
الوهم الكردي في كركوك
د.إسماعيل عيسى ألبياتي
المقدمة
إن إحدى معضلات الدولة العراقية الحالية، هي استمرار الأكراد بإثارة موضوع كركوك واعتبارها جزءً من المنطقة الكردية،أو منطقة كردستان .وبالرغم من إن قانون إدارة الدولة العراقية ، الذي أقره مجلس الحكم الانتقالي، قد أرجأ حل مشكلة كركوك باعتباره حالة خاصة،والى حين استكمال المصادقة على الدستور الدائم للدولة العراقية ،مع بقاء حدود المحافظات العراقية الثمانية عشرة من دون تغير،وكذلك عدم إمكانية دمج محافظة كركوك مع أي محافظة أخرى أو إقليم فيدرالي. الاّ ان القيادة الكردية المتمثلة بالسيدين مسعود البارزاني وجلال الطالباني، تؤكد دائما على ان كركوك هي جزء من المنطقة الكردية.فتارة هي أشبه بقلب كردستان النابض، وتارة اخرى، قدسها الذي لايمكن المساس به. علما ان كركوك لم تكن جغرافيا وتاريخيا واجتماعيا ضمن المنطقة الكردية،أو بأكثرية كردية في أي وقت من الأوقات
تاريخ كردستان المتداول
استخدم مصطلح كردستان (منطقة الأكراد) ولأول مرة في زمن السلاجقة الأتراك عام 1157م، عندما اقيمت مقاطعة بأسم كردستان مركزها "بهار" في شمال غربي همذان، محاذية لأذربيجان في ايران. فهي تمثل الجزء الشمالي من جبال زغاروس، أي منطقة شهرزور التي تشمل مقاطعة كردستان الإيرانية الحالية وكذلك محافظة السليمانية الحالية في العراق
إن مساحة كردستان أخذت تتوسع بمرور الزمن والى يومنا هذا على حساب مناطق جديدة تقطنها شعوب أخرى: نحو الجنوب إلى مناطق بختيار واللور ونحو الشمال إلى بلاد الأرمن واذربيجان ونحو الغرب إلى منطقة الجزيرة "شمال وادي الرافدين" لتشمل ديار بكر والعمادية والموصل واربيل وكركوك وأطلقوا حديثا تسمية "كردستان الجنوبية" على سهل نينوى الكلدواشوري الأصيل، حتى وصلت حدود خريطتهم أخيرا إلى مشارف مدينة الكوت .وفي كل توسع كانوا يعتبرون المناطق الجديدة جزأ من كردستان،رغم وجود أقوام أصليين قاطنيين في تلك المناطق
في عام 1349م أي بعد مرور قرنين من تسمية مقاطعة كردستان نرى مساحةكردستان حسب ما ذكره المؤرخ حمد الله مصطفى قد توسعت لتشمل مناطق جديدة في الشمال والجنوب. وفي عام 1596م توسع المؤرخ شرف الدين في كتابه "شرف نامة" في تعريف منطقة كردستان جنوبا لتشمل مقاطعة لورستان كافة. وفي عام 1682 يأتي المؤرخ الشلبي ليتوسع في تعريف مساحة كردستان شمالا لتشمل الجزء الكبير من أرمينيا ثم يتوسع إلى الغرب نحو منطقة الجزيرة في شمال الرافدين لتشمل ديار بكر والعمادية والموصل واربيل وكركوك ثم نحو الشمال الغربي إلى أذربجان الغربية.وقد لعب التحالف الطائفي بين الترك السنة والكرد السنة دورا كبيرا في إنشاء بعض الأمارات الكردية،ومن أشهرها الإمارة البابانية في السليمانية عام 1515 م وامارة أخرى في ديار بكر ، لغرض مجابهة الشيعة المتمثلين في أيران و المسيحيين في شمال الرافدين. فليس غريبا أن نجد السليماتية منطقة كردية خالصة.لكن كركوك بقت بعيدة عن الوجود الكردي وظلت محافظة على طابعها التركماني. فالتشبث في توسيع منطقة كردستان بالشكل الحالي هو حق غير تاريخي أو جغرافي، وهو طموح غير مشروع لأنه يقوم على حساب أقوام أخرى، ويستلب حقوق جماعات كانت تستوطن المنطقة منذ قديم الزمان، ولها تاريخ عريق فيها، فالإدعاء أن كركوك التاريخية هي جزء من كردستان المتداولة هو دعوة باطلة لأن كركوك لم تقطنها يوما أكثرية كردية أبدا
لمحة قصيره عن تاريخ كركوك
كركوك من المدن العراقية القديمة التي جاء ذكرها في الألواح الكلدانية والآشورية قبل أكثر من أربعة آلاف سنة،تحت اسم أربخا، وفيها شيد القائد سلوةس الأغريقي قلعته ،على انقاض قلعة الآشوريين الشهيرة الماثلة الى الآن.وقد جاءت تسمية كركوك ، منحوتة عن كلمة كرخ سلوق ، أي مدينة سلوق. ولما انتشرت الديانة المسيحية في وادي الرافدين، أصبحت كركوك مركزا ثقافيا مسيحيا للسريان،وسميت بيت كرماي، أي بيت العظام ، نسبة إلى المجزرة التي كان ضحيتها بضعة الاف من المسيحيين في القرن الرابع الميلادي في عهد الفرس الساسانيين ، وظلت مركزا إشعاعيا للثقافة المسيحية على طوال فترة الفتوحات الإسلامية
بعد ازدياد النفوذ التركي في العراق، لاسيما عند وصول ( القا ئد طغرل بك) فاتحا بغداد على رأس السلاجقة الترك عام 1115م ، أصبحت مناطق شمال الرافدين كالموصل وأربيل وكركوك من مراكز النفوذ التركي، فأقام فيها التركمان الدول والإمارات ،مثل إمارة الموصل وأربيل وكركوك.ونشأت علاقة حميمة بين رؤساء دولتي (الخروف الأبيض والخروف الأسود التركمان) والمسيحيين في كركوك واربيل، فأعتنق قسم منهم الدين المسيحي.وظلت هذه المناطق تحت حكم التركمان زهاء قرنين من الزمان ولحين زحف العثمانيين الى بغداد وإقامة الإمبراطورية العثمانية عام 1515م،حيث خضعت جميع الزعامات التركمانية المحلية لحكم العثمانيين فأنخرط التركمان في الحياة المدنية وأصبحوا جزءا مهما من التركيبة السكانية. وطيلة قرون حكم العثمانيين الأتراك بقت كركوك مركزا ثقافيا تركمانيا يزود الإمبراطورية العثمانية بالعسكريين والموظفين المدنين والمثقفين ،كما ظلت على هذا المنوال خلال الحكم العراقي الوطني في مستهل حياته السياسي
التركيبة السكانية لكركوك
الوقائع التاريخية تؤكد إن كركوك كانت مركزا للتركمان ولقرون طويلة،بعد إن كانت مركزا للسريان في انتشار المسيحية،حيث عاش فيها التركمان،الكلدواشوريون،اليهود،بعض الأكراد والعرب. وأثار التركمان لا تزال شاخصة في كركوك الى يومنا هذا، فالمقابر العديدة ،الموزعة في المدينة ،أكثرها تركمانية، إلا مقبرة واحدة حديثة، بدأ الاكراد يدفنوا بها موتاهم بعد الثلاثينات من القرن الماضي. والأدباء والشعراء والفنانون ولحد عام 1980 كانوا كلهم من التركمان، واذا كان هناك شاعر كردي، فقد كتب بالتركمانية أكثر مما كتب بالكردية. إن أسماء الأحياء والأسواق القديمة جميعها بالتركمانية، والصحف والنشرات والمجلات وحتى جريدة الوقائع المحلية، كانت كلها تصدر بالتركمانية. كذلك المحاكم هي الأخرى كانت تجري مرافعاتها بالتركمانية، أما المتصرفون ( المحافظون) الذين اداروا كركوك خلال العهد الملكي ولعام 1959والذين جاؤا عن طريق الانتخابات، كانوا من التركمان عدا ثلاثة محافظين من الأكراد تم تعيينهم في ظروف سياسية خاصة
رغم صفحات التاريخ،وصدق الآثار والشواهد التي تؤكد إن غالبية سكان كركوك، كانوا من التركمان ولفترة قريبة ،يبقى وهم الأكراد في أن غالبية سكان كركوك كانوا من الأكراد في يوم ما. لكن ،لا نعرف متى ولماذا؟ والبعض يعزو ذلك إلى أن 90% من عمال شركة نفط كركوك كانوا من الأكراد في عام 1957 . (وهم يعرفون جبدا إن ذلك حدث لأسباب سياسية بحتة،لأن التركمان سببوا مشاكل كثيرة للشركة حال تأسيسها ،لمناهضتهم الكبيرة للإنكليز ،مما سبب في إبعادهم من العمل في الشركة).ولنفس السبب نجد إن 90% من العاملين في شركة نفط خانقين في عام 1957 كانوا من المسيحيين،ولكن لم يدع المسيحيون في ملكية نفط خانقين أبدا، وان نسبتهم في خانقين كانت قليلة وتكاد لا تذكر
ومن الأدلة الدامغة لبيان التركيبة السكانية لكركوك ،يكون العودة إلى بعض السجلات العثمانية المحايدة التي نظمت لأغراض إدارية صرفة،في وقت لم تكن فيه أي أهمية تجارية للنفط
سجلات التوثيق العثمانية الخاصة بلواء كركوك
إن مجرد العودة إلى سجلات التوثيق العائدة للدولة العثمانية والمحفوظة في المديرية العامة للوثائق الرسمية في الجمهورية التركية،تعطيك صورة واضحة دقيقة ونزيهة عن التركيبة السكانية في لواء كركوك، ففي الصفحة (83) من سجل التوثيق رقم 111 و 285 الذي نظم في عهد السلطان سليمان القانوني عام 1548 م لغرض جباية الضرائب ،وسوق الأفراد إلى الخدمة العسكرية ،نجد أسماء البالغين من الرجال الساكنين في كركوك وأقضيتها ونواحيها وقراها،وهي مصنفة على أساس الديانة وعددهم 7320 رجلا،منهم 6990 مسلما ،و 180 مسيحيا،و 150 يهوديا،وباستخدام الاستقراء العلمي للأسماء ومدلولاتها القومية،نجد بين المسلمين آنذاك 6558 تركمانيا, و 54 كرديا و 23 عربيا، فما بالها اليوم نتقلب إلى شاكلة أخرى ،والشواهد لا تزال فيها شاخصة بينة
إن نسبة الأكراد القاطنين في مدينة كركوك ولحد عام 1927 كانت قليلة جدا،لكن الصناعة النفطية التي بدأت ذلك العام فيها هي التي استقطبت الكثير من العرب والأكراد لغرض العمل في حقولها. ثم توالت الهجرات العربية والكردية بعد عام 1930 لتأخذ طابعا سياسيا، واصبحت كركوك مسرحا للصراعات القومية
طموح الأكراد في كركوك
إن طموح الأكراد في المناطق النفطية من كركوك، بدأ يزداد مع أزدياد أهمية النفط في الأسواق العالمية،بعد عام 1925 ، وأخذ الملا مصطفى البارزاني يدق على وتر "كركوك كردستانية" منذ ذلك الحين، على الرغم من ان نسبة الأكراد كما تشير الدلائل لم تكن حتى عام 1958 أكثر من 10-15% من نسبة السكان داخل مدينة كركوك .إلا أن تأثيرهم السياسي المسلح بدأ يزداد مع قيام ثورة 14تموز عام1958 م. فلأول مرة في تاريخ العراق ،يقر الدستور العراقي المؤقت، الذي صاغه عسكريون ومتعصبون قوميون ، بوجود القومية الكردية جنبا إلى جنب مع القومية العربية، في المشاركة في الوطن العراقي. وقد ساعد التحالف الذي قام بين القيادة الكردية والحزب الشيوعي العراقي، في مستهل الحكم الجمهوري ،في فرض السيطرة على مدينة كركوك ،وأحداث مجزرة كركوك عام 1959 خير دليل على ذلك
لقد عانى التركمان والأكراد الأمرين في عهد صدام حسين من تهجير وترحيل وإعدامات وسجون.ولكن الجريمة الكبرى التي ارتكبها نظام صدام في حق التركمان هي بدعتها للأستمارة الأحصائية التي تسأل المواطن (هل أنت عربي أم كردي) في إحصائياتها ، وبذلك ساهم صدام حسين بطمس الهوية التركمانية في كركوك وغيرها من المناطق التركمانية أكثر من سابقيه.ولدى سقوط حكم الطاغية،أستبشر الناس خيرا، وتاملوا أن تلك المهازل التي كانت تجري يومذاك ،قد زالت إلى غير رجعة.لكن للأسف الشديد،إن ما حدث في كركوك خلال الأنتخابات الأخيرة، لم يكن يختلف عما كان يحدث سابقا ،فقد اخترقت شروط الانتخابات في كركوك، بشتى الأشكال وتحت حماية وتوجيه البشمركة الكردية المسلحة،فكانت هذه البادرة دليلا شاخصا على سؤ نية الأكراد تجاه كركوك ، حيث أدلى الكثير من الأكراد لأصواتهم لمرات متكررة. وانتقل الآلاف من الأكراد من اربيل والسليمانية للتصويت في كركوك، كما تم يوم التصويت فتح مراكز انتخابية إضافية في المناطق الكردية لم تكن سابقا مدرجة في الخطة. ومن اجل فسح المجال أمام
الكرد للإدلاء بأصواتهم في تلك المراكز، تم سحب آلاف الاستمارات الانتخابية من مراكز التركمان ووضعت في خدمة المراكز الدخيلة. بينما نفذت في وسط النهار الاستمارات الانتخابية من مراكز التركمان، ولم يعد بامكان الحاضرين التصويت، فخسروا آلاف الأصوات نتيجة هذه الممارسة المتعمدة، ولم تجد الاعتراضات نفعا، والاحتجاجات التي رفعت الى المفوضية العليا المشرفة على الانتخابات والتي ثبتت رسميا آنذاك
فوهم الأكراد بكركوك قد دفعهم لتشجيع مئات الألاف من الأكراد للهجرة إليها، وهم لم يمتوا أي صلة بكركوك.،كما شاعت ظاهرة شراء البطاقات التموينية من الناس الفقراء لقاء مبالغ مغرية،لغرض إعطائها إلى أكراد قدموا من الخارج لا علاقة لهم في كركوك ،لاعتبارهم من أهل كركوك الأصليين.وفي الشتات تدفع المنظمات الكردية الأكراد المهاجرين،لتسجيل نفسهم وعوائلهم ضمن سجلات كركوك،وكذلك يتم تسجيل مواليد جدد من اطفال الأكراد من مناطق خارج كركوك ضمن سجلات كركوك.كل ذلك تمهيدا لزيادة نسبة عدد الأكراد في التعداد السكاني القادم لغرض تقرير مصير كركوك وكما تكرره وتريده القيادات الكردية. ذلك التعداد السكاني المرتقب ،والذي يريدون من الآن أن يبنوه على الزيف والتمويه.وفي الشتات دفعت المنظمات الكردية المهاجرين الأكراد إلى تسجيل أنفسهم وعوائلهم ضمن سجلات كركوك للغرض ذاته
إن مسألة تغير المناهج الدراسية في كركوك إلى كردية،وتعين مسوؤلي الدوائر من أكراد قادمين من السليمانية واربيل بكفاءات حزبية ومخابراتية وليس بمؤهلات أكاديمية وعلمية ، وتشكيل معظم المجالس البلدية من اعضاء الأحزاب الكردية أو من يواليهم ،وأغتيال كل من مدير تربية كركوك ومدير شرطتها التركمانين ،وقتل العديد من التركمان والعرب وأزاحتهم عن الطريق تحت مسميات قوى الأرهاب ، هي للأسف أساليب لا تختلف إطلاقا عن أساليب صدام حسين التي مارسها لصهر القوميات غير العربية والتي عانى منها الأكراد أكثر من أي قومية أخرى ولعهد قريب،ويبدو إن الأكراد لم يأخذوا دروسا وعبر من تلك الممارسات الخاطئة التي جلبت علينا وعليهم كثيرا من الويلات والمآسي . فيريدون اليوم ممارستها بأساليب وحيل لن تخدم أبدا مسيرة بناء المجتمع الذي يحلم به كل العراقيين
حل مسألة كركوك
إن حل مسالة كركوك يكمن في تركها لأهلها الأصلين، والعودة إلى حدودها وحالتها قبل عام 1970 ،والامتثال لبنود قانون إدارة الدولة العراقية وليس بالتجاوز والاستعلاء أو اللف على بنوده ،واستغلال ضعف الحكومة المركزية وإحراجها في ظرف اشد ما تكون إلى المساعدة ،وذلك بالمبالغة في عدد الأكراد المرحلين والمهجرين،وهم على أي حال معروفين من قبل أهل كركوك الأصلين،وقد عاد أكثرهم واستلموا املاكهم وأراضيهم حال سقوط الطاغية
فكركوك تمثل الموزائيك العراقي البديع بألوانه الجميلة، من عرب وأكراد وتركمان،وكلدوأشورين ,وأرمن، عاشوا لقرون طويلة في أخوة ومحبة لم تفرقهم فارقة إلا عند احتدام الصراع العربي الكردي بشأن تعريب وتكر يد كركوك طمعا في ذهبها الأسود وليس حبا في سواد عيونها،وما على الأحرار من العراقيين والقائمين على أمرهم إلا دعم مؤسسات المجتمع المدني في هذه المدينة وإبعاد الهيمنة الحزبية من إرهاب الناس وإفساح المجال للمواطنين لممارسة حقوقهم وواجبا تهم بحرية وأمان،ولن يتم هذا بإثارة النعرات القومية أو بطرد العرب من المدينة وإحلال أكراد مكانهم لا علاقة لهم بكركوك مطلقا،فإذا كان صدام قد أخطأ بحق العرب ،فان العرب في كركوك ما هم إلا ضحية هذا الخطأ.فلا نريد اليوم ضحايا جدد من الكرد يحلون على كركوك مثلما حل العرب سابقا. ولا بد لكركوك إن تعيد مجدها التليد ولكن بلباس مدني وحضاري جديد سداه المحبة ولحمته التعاون،فكركوك لها كل المقومات أن تكون محافظة فدرالية لوحدها ترتبط مباشرة بالمركز، تعود مواردها النفطية لجميع العراقيين ويستحق أن يعيش أبنائها بأطيافهم المتنوعة برخاء وهناء بعيدا عن التعصب والإرهاب الذي يسعى إلى تخريب العراق
الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية
Aysaalbayaty@yahoo.com
د.إسماعيل عيسى ألبياتي
المقدمة
إن إحدى معضلات الدولة العراقية الحالية، هي استمرار الأكراد بإثارة موضوع كركوك واعتبارها جزءً من المنطقة الكردية،أو منطقة كردستان .وبالرغم من إن قانون إدارة الدولة العراقية ، الذي أقره مجلس الحكم الانتقالي، قد أرجأ حل مشكلة كركوك باعتباره حالة خاصة،والى حين استكمال المصادقة على الدستور الدائم للدولة العراقية ،مع بقاء حدود المحافظات العراقية الثمانية عشرة من دون تغير،وكذلك عدم إمكانية دمج محافظة كركوك مع أي محافظة أخرى أو إقليم فيدرالي. الاّ ان القيادة الكردية المتمثلة بالسيدين مسعود البارزاني وجلال الطالباني، تؤكد دائما على ان كركوك هي جزء من المنطقة الكردية.فتارة هي أشبه بقلب كردستان النابض، وتارة اخرى، قدسها الذي لايمكن المساس به. علما ان كركوك لم تكن جغرافيا وتاريخيا واجتماعيا ضمن المنطقة الكردية،أو بأكثرية كردية في أي وقت من الأوقات
تاريخ كردستان المتداول
استخدم مصطلح كردستان (منطقة الأكراد) ولأول مرة في زمن السلاجقة الأتراك عام 1157م، عندما اقيمت مقاطعة بأسم كردستان مركزها "بهار" في شمال غربي همذان، محاذية لأذربيجان في ايران. فهي تمثل الجزء الشمالي من جبال زغاروس، أي منطقة شهرزور التي تشمل مقاطعة كردستان الإيرانية الحالية وكذلك محافظة السليمانية الحالية في العراق
إن مساحة كردستان أخذت تتوسع بمرور الزمن والى يومنا هذا على حساب مناطق جديدة تقطنها شعوب أخرى: نحو الجنوب إلى مناطق بختيار واللور ونحو الشمال إلى بلاد الأرمن واذربيجان ونحو الغرب إلى منطقة الجزيرة "شمال وادي الرافدين" لتشمل ديار بكر والعمادية والموصل واربيل وكركوك وأطلقوا حديثا تسمية "كردستان الجنوبية" على سهل نينوى الكلدواشوري الأصيل، حتى وصلت حدود خريطتهم أخيرا إلى مشارف مدينة الكوت .وفي كل توسع كانوا يعتبرون المناطق الجديدة جزأ من كردستان،رغم وجود أقوام أصليين قاطنيين في تلك المناطق
في عام 1349م أي بعد مرور قرنين من تسمية مقاطعة كردستان نرى مساحةكردستان حسب ما ذكره المؤرخ حمد الله مصطفى قد توسعت لتشمل مناطق جديدة في الشمال والجنوب. وفي عام 1596م توسع المؤرخ شرف الدين في كتابه "شرف نامة" في تعريف منطقة كردستان جنوبا لتشمل مقاطعة لورستان كافة. وفي عام 1682 يأتي المؤرخ الشلبي ليتوسع في تعريف مساحة كردستان شمالا لتشمل الجزء الكبير من أرمينيا ثم يتوسع إلى الغرب نحو منطقة الجزيرة في شمال الرافدين لتشمل ديار بكر والعمادية والموصل واربيل وكركوك ثم نحو الشمال الغربي إلى أذربجان الغربية.وقد لعب التحالف الطائفي بين الترك السنة والكرد السنة دورا كبيرا في إنشاء بعض الأمارات الكردية،ومن أشهرها الإمارة البابانية في السليمانية عام 1515 م وامارة أخرى في ديار بكر ، لغرض مجابهة الشيعة المتمثلين في أيران و المسيحيين في شمال الرافدين. فليس غريبا أن نجد السليماتية منطقة كردية خالصة.لكن كركوك بقت بعيدة عن الوجود الكردي وظلت محافظة على طابعها التركماني. فالتشبث في توسيع منطقة كردستان بالشكل الحالي هو حق غير تاريخي أو جغرافي، وهو طموح غير مشروع لأنه يقوم على حساب أقوام أخرى، ويستلب حقوق جماعات كانت تستوطن المنطقة منذ قديم الزمان، ولها تاريخ عريق فيها، فالإدعاء أن كركوك التاريخية هي جزء من كردستان المتداولة هو دعوة باطلة لأن كركوك لم تقطنها يوما أكثرية كردية أبدا
لمحة قصيره عن تاريخ كركوك
كركوك من المدن العراقية القديمة التي جاء ذكرها في الألواح الكلدانية والآشورية قبل أكثر من أربعة آلاف سنة،تحت اسم أربخا، وفيها شيد القائد سلوةس الأغريقي قلعته ،على انقاض قلعة الآشوريين الشهيرة الماثلة الى الآن.وقد جاءت تسمية كركوك ، منحوتة عن كلمة كرخ سلوق ، أي مدينة سلوق. ولما انتشرت الديانة المسيحية في وادي الرافدين، أصبحت كركوك مركزا ثقافيا مسيحيا للسريان،وسميت بيت كرماي، أي بيت العظام ، نسبة إلى المجزرة التي كان ضحيتها بضعة الاف من المسيحيين في القرن الرابع الميلادي في عهد الفرس الساسانيين ، وظلت مركزا إشعاعيا للثقافة المسيحية على طوال فترة الفتوحات الإسلامية
بعد ازدياد النفوذ التركي في العراق، لاسيما عند وصول ( القا ئد طغرل بك) فاتحا بغداد على رأس السلاجقة الترك عام 1115م ، أصبحت مناطق شمال الرافدين كالموصل وأربيل وكركوك من مراكز النفوذ التركي، فأقام فيها التركمان الدول والإمارات ،مثل إمارة الموصل وأربيل وكركوك.ونشأت علاقة حميمة بين رؤساء دولتي (الخروف الأبيض والخروف الأسود التركمان) والمسيحيين في كركوك واربيل، فأعتنق قسم منهم الدين المسيحي.وظلت هذه المناطق تحت حكم التركمان زهاء قرنين من الزمان ولحين زحف العثمانيين الى بغداد وإقامة الإمبراطورية العثمانية عام 1515م،حيث خضعت جميع الزعامات التركمانية المحلية لحكم العثمانيين فأنخرط التركمان في الحياة المدنية وأصبحوا جزءا مهما من التركيبة السكانية. وطيلة قرون حكم العثمانيين الأتراك بقت كركوك مركزا ثقافيا تركمانيا يزود الإمبراطورية العثمانية بالعسكريين والموظفين المدنين والمثقفين ،كما ظلت على هذا المنوال خلال الحكم العراقي الوطني في مستهل حياته السياسي
التركيبة السكانية لكركوك
الوقائع التاريخية تؤكد إن كركوك كانت مركزا للتركمان ولقرون طويلة،بعد إن كانت مركزا للسريان في انتشار المسيحية،حيث عاش فيها التركمان،الكلدواشوريون،اليهود،بعض الأكراد والعرب. وأثار التركمان لا تزال شاخصة في كركوك الى يومنا هذا، فالمقابر العديدة ،الموزعة في المدينة ،أكثرها تركمانية، إلا مقبرة واحدة حديثة، بدأ الاكراد يدفنوا بها موتاهم بعد الثلاثينات من القرن الماضي. والأدباء والشعراء والفنانون ولحد عام 1980 كانوا كلهم من التركمان، واذا كان هناك شاعر كردي، فقد كتب بالتركمانية أكثر مما كتب بالكردية. إن أسماء الأحياء والأسواق القديمة جميعها بالتركمانية، والصحف والنشرات والمجلات وحتى جريدة الوقائع المحلية، كانت كلها تصدر بالتركمانية. كذلك المحاكم هي الأخرى كانت تجري مرافعاتها بالتركمانية، أما المتصرفون ( المحافظون) الذين اداروا كركوك خلال العهد الملكي ولعام 1959والذين جاؤا عن طريق الانتخابات، كانوا من التركمان عدا ثلاثة محافظين من الأكراد تم تعيينهم في ظروف سياسية خاصة
رغم صفحات التاريخ،وصدق الآثار والشواهد التي تؤكد إن غالبية سكان كركوك، كانوا من التركمان ولفترة قريبة ،يبقى وهم الأكراد في أن غالبية سكان كركوك كانوا من الأكراد في يوم ما. لكن ،لا نعرف متى ولماذا؟ والبعض يعزو ذلك إلى أن 90% من عمال شركة نفط كركوك كانوا من الأكراد في عام 1957 . (وهم يعرفون جبدا إن ذلك حدث لأسباب سياسية بحتة،لأن التركمان سببوا مشاكل كثيرة للشركة حال تأسيسها ،لمناهضتهم الكبيرة للإنكليز ،مما سبب في إبعادهم من العمل في الشركة).ولنفس السبب نجد إن 90% من العاملين في شركة نفط خانقين في عام 1957 كانوا من المسيحيين،ولكن لم يدع المسيحيون في ملكية نفط خانقين أبدا، وان نسبتهم في خانقين كانت قليلة وتكاد لا تذكر
ومن الأدلة الدامغة لبيان التركيبة السكانية لكركوك ،يكون العودة إلى بعض السجلات العثمانية المحايدة التي نظمت لأغراض إدارية صرفة،في وقت لم تكن فيه أي أهمية تجارية للنفط
سجلات التوثيق العثمانية الخاصة بلواء كركوك
إن مجرد العودة إلى سجلات التوثيق العائدة للدولة العثمانية والمحفوظة في المديرية العامة للوثائق الرسمية في الجمهورية التركية،تعطيك صورة واضحة دقيقة ونزيهة عن التركيبة السكانية في لواء كركوك، ففي الصفحة (83) من سجل التوثيق رقم 111 و 285 الذي نظم في عهد السلطان سليمان القانوني عام 1548 م لغرض جباية الضرائب ،وسوق الأفراد إلى الخدمة العسكرية ،نجد أسماء البالغين من الرجال الساكنين في كركوك وأقضيتها ونواحيها وقراها،وهي مصنفة على أساس الديانة وعددهم 7320 رجلا،منهم 6990 مسلما ،و 180 مسيحيا،و 150 يهوديا،وباستخدام الاستقراء العلمي للأسماء ومدلولاتها القومية،نجد بين المسلمين آنذاك 6558 تركمانيا, و 54 كرديا و 23 عربيا، فما بالها اليوم نتقلب إلى شاكلة أخرى ،والشواهد لا تزال فيها شاخصة بينة
إن نسبة الأكراد القاطنين في مدينة كركوك ولحد عام 1927 كانت قليلة جدا،لكن الصناعة النفطية التي بدأت ذلك العام فيها هي التي استقطبت الكثير من العرب والأكراد لغرض العمل في حقولها. ثم توالت الهجرات العربية والكردية بعد عام 1930 لتأخذ طابعا سياسيا، واصبحت كركوك مسرحا للصراعات القومية
طموح الأكراد في كركوك
إن طموح الأكراد في المناطق النفطية من كركوك، بدأ يزداد مع أزدياد أهمية النفط في الأسواق العالمية،بعد عام 1925 ، وأخذ الملا مصطفى البارزاني يدق على وتر "كركوك كردستانية" منذ ذلك الحين، على الرغم من ان نسبة الأكراد كما تشير الدلائل لم تكن حتى عام 1958 أكثر من 10-15% من نسبة السكان داخل مدينة كركوك .إلا أن تأثيرهم السياسي المسلح بدأ يزداد مع قيام ثورة 14تموز عام1958 م. فلأول مرة في تاريخ العراق ،يقر الدستور العراقي المؤقت، الذي صاغه عسكريون ومتعصبون قوميون ، بوجود القومية الكردية جنبا إلى جنب مع القومية العربية، في المشاركة في الوطن العراقي. وقد ساعد التحالف الذي قام بين القيادة الكردية والحزب الشيوعي العراقي، في مستهل الحكم الجمهوري ،في فرض السيطرة على مدينة كركوك ،وأحداث مجزرة كركوك عام 1959 خير دليل على ذلك
لقد عانى التركمان والأكراد الأمرين في عهد صدام حسين من تهجير وترحيل وإعدامات وسجون.ولكن الجريمة الكبرى التي ارتكبها نظام صدام في حق التركمان هي بدعتها للأستمارة الأحصائية التي تسأل المواطن (هل أنت عربي أم كردي) في إحصائياتها ، وبذلك ساهم صدام حسين بطمس الهوية التركمانية في كركوك وغيرها من المناطق التركمانية أكثر من سابقيه.ولدى سقوط حكم الطاغية،أستبشر الناس خيرا، وتاملوا أن تلك المهازل التي كانت تجري يومذاك ،قد زالت إلى غير رجعة.لكن للأسف الشديد،إن ما حدث في كركوك خلال الأنتخابات الأخيرة، لم يكن يختلف عما كان يحدث سابقا ،فقد اخترقت شروط الانتخابات في كركوك، بشتى الأشكال وتحت حماية وتوجيه البشمركة الكردية المسلحة،فكانت هذه البادرة دليلا شاخصا على سؤ نية الأكراد تجاه كركوك ، حيث أدلى الكثير من الأكراد لأصواتهم لمرات متكررة. وانتقل الآلاف من الأكراد من اربيل والسليمانية للتصويت في كركوك، كما تم يوم التصويت فتح مراكز انتخابية إضافية في المناطق الكردية لم تكن سابقا مدرجة في الخطة. ومن اجل فسح المجال أمام
الكرد للإدلاء بأصواتهم في تلك المراكز، تم سحب آلاف الاستمارات الانتخابية من مراكز التركمان ووضعت في خدمة المراكز الدخيلة. بينما نفذت في وسط النهار الاستمارات الانتخابية من مراكز التركمان، ولم يعد بامكان الحاضرين التصويت، فخسروا آلاف الأصوات نتيجة هذه الممارسة المتعمدة، ولم تجد الاعتراضات نفعا، والاحتجاجات التي رفعت الى المفوضية العليا المشرفة على الانتخابات والتي ثبتت رسميا آنذاك
فوهم الأكراد بكركوك قد دفعهم لتشجيع مئات الألاف من الأكراد للهجرة إليها، وهم لم يمتوا أي صلة بكركوك.،كما شاعت ظاهرة شراء البطاقات التموينية من الناس الفقراء لقاء مبالغ مغرية،لغرض إعطائها إلى أكراد قدموا من الخارج لا علاقة لهم في كركوك ،لاعتبارهم من أهل كركوك الأصليين.وفي الشتات تدفع المنظمات الكردية الأكراد المهاجرين،لتسجيل نفسهم وعوائلهم ضمن سجلات كركوك،وكذلك يتم تسجيل مواليد جدد من اطفال الأكراد من مناطق خارج كركوك ضمن سجلات كركوك.كل ذلك تمهيدا لزيادة نسبة عدد الأكراد في التعداد السكاني القادم لغرض تقرير مصير كركوك وكما تكرره وتريده القيادات الكردية. ذلك التعداد السكاني المرتقب ،والذي يريدون من الآن أن يبنوه على الزيف والتمويه.وفي الشتات دفعت المنظمات الكردية المهاجرين الأكراد إلى تسجيل أنفسهم وعوائلهم ضمن سجلات كركوك للغرض ذاته
إن مسألة تغير المناهج الدراسية في كركوك إلى كردية،وتعين مسوؤلي الدوائر من أكراد قادمين من السليمانية واربيل بكفاءات حزبية ومخابراتية وليس بمؤهلات أكاديمية وعلمية ، وتشكيل معظم المجالس البلدية من اعضاء الأحزاب الكردية أو من يواليهم ،وأغتيال كل من مدير تربية كركوك ومدير شرطتها التركمانين ،وقتل العديد من التركمان والعرب وأزاحتهم عن الطريق تحت مسميات قوى الأرهاب ، هي للأسف أساليب لا تختلف إطلاقا عن أساليب صدام حسين التي مارسها لصهر القوميات غير العربية والتي عانى منها الأكراد أكثر من أي قومية أخرى ولعهد قريب،ويبدو إن الأكراد لم يأخذوا دروسا وعبر من تلك الممارسات الخاطئة التي جلبت علينا وعليهم كثيرا من الويلات والمآسي . فيريدون اليوم ممارستها بأساليب وحيل لن تخدم أبدا مسيرة بناء المجتمع الذي يحلم به كل العراقيين
حل مسألة كركوك
إن حل مسالة كركوك يكمن في تركها لأهلها الأصلين، والعودة إلى حدودها وحالتها قبل عام 1970 ،والامتثال لبنود قانون إدارة الدولة العراقية وليس بالتجاوز والاستعلاء أو اللف على بنوده ،واستغلال ضعف الحكومة المركزية وإحراجها في ظرف اشد ما تكون إلى المساعدة ،وذلك بالمبالغة في عدد الأكراد المرحلين والمهجرين،وهم على أي حال معروفين من قبل أهل كركوك الأصلين،وقد عاد أكثرهم واستلموا املاكهم وأراضيهم حال سقوط الطاغية
فكركوك تمثل الموزائيك العراقي البديع بألوانه الجميلة، من عرب وأكراد وتركمان،وكلدوأشورين ,وأرمن، عاشوا لقرون طويلة في أخوة ومحبة لم تفرقهم فارقة إلا عند احتدام الصراع العربي الكردي بشأن تعريب وتكر يد كركوك طمعا في ذهبها الأسود وليس حبا في سواد عيونها،وما على الأحرار من العراقيين والقائمين على أمرهم إلا دعم مؤسسات المجتمع المدني في هذه المدينة وإبعاد الهيمنة الحزبية من إرهاب الناس وإفساح المجال للمواطنين لممارسة حقوقهم وواجبا تهم بحرية وأمان،ولن يتم هذا بإثارة النعرات القومية أو بطرد العرب من المدينة وإحلال أكراد مكانهم لا علاقة لهم بكركوك مطلقا،فإذا كان صدام قد أخطأ بحق العرب ،فان العرب في كركوك ما هم إلا ضحية هذا الخطأ.فلا نريد اليوم ضحايا جدد من الكرد يحلون على كركوك مثلما حل العرب سابقا. ولا بد لكركوك إن تعيد مجدها التليد ولكن بلباس مدني وحضاري جديد سداه المحبة ولحمته التعاون،فكركوك لها كل المقومات أن تكون محافظة فدرالية لوحدها ترتبط مباشرة بالمركز، تعود مواردها النفطية لجميع العراقيين ويستحق أن يعيش أبنائها بأطيافهم المتنوعة برخاء وهناء بعيدا عن التعصب والإرهاب الذي يسعى إلى تخريب العراق
الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية
Aysaalbayaty@yahoo.com
jeudi 27 janvier 2011
Hasan Turan, a Turkmen councillor calls for semi-autonomy in Kerkuk
http://www.zawya.com/story.cfm/sidZAWYA20110126090738
By Ammar Ali
Kirkuk - A Turkmen Councillor in Kirkuk said on Tuesday that the Turkmen project to apply for semi-autonomy in the oil-rich, multi-ethnic region under Article 119 of the Iraqi Constitution would resolve the territorial debate being waged between Baghdad and the Kurdistan region.
Hasan Turan told AKnews that he believes the project will win the support of all ethnic components and political blocs on both regional and national levels."This province can become a region...and be a model of economic well-being in Iraq and of peaceful coexistence between the ethnic components found within it," he said.
Kirkuk has long been the subject of a territorial debate between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government. The region is believed to be sitting atop four percent of global oil reserves and is attractive to foreign investors, but exploration has been blocked by security concerns.
By Ammar Ali
Kirkuk - A Turkmen Councillor in Kirkuk said on Tuesday that the Turkmen project to apply for semi-autonomy in the oil-rich, multi-ethnic region under Article 119 of the Iraqi Constitution would resolve the territorial debate being waged between Baghdad and the Kurdistan region.
Hasan Turan told AKnews that he believes the project will win the support of all ethnic components and political blocs on both regional and national levels."This province can become a region...and be a model of economic well-being in Iraq and of peaceful coexistence between the ethnic components found within it," he said.
Kirkuk has long been the subject of a territorial debate between Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government. The region is believed to be sitting atop four percent of global oil reserves and is attractive to foreign investors, but exploration has been blocked by security concerns.
mercredi 12 janvier 2011
Davutoğlu's delayed visit to Iraq
HASAN KANBOLAT
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Davutoğlu’s delayed visit to Iraq
Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Iraq, which was scheduled for Jan. 10-11, 2011, has been postponed for now. The minister is expected to visit the country in the next couple of weeks. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to make a visit to Iraq after Davutoğlu.
There are few hotels in Baghdad, and they are currently undergoing maintenance for the Arab League summit that will be held in Baghdad in March, causing Davutoğlu to keep his delegation at home. Aside from this, Baghdad continues to be the scene of political developments.
The last time Davutoğlu visited Iraq was on Nov. 7, 2010. His visit was going to be an expression of support for the new Iraqi government. During his visit, the preliminary work of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council was going to be carried out. Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai have already visited Iraq to lend their support to the Iraqi government. Last week Iran’s new foreign affairs minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, made his first visit among Arab countries to Iraq. In this respect, Salehi’s visit shows where Iraq stands with regard to Iran’s foreign policy.
Davutoğlu had plans to visit Baghdad, Najaf and Kirkuk. No senior level Turkish diplomat other than Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad, Murat Özcelik, has visited Najaf, which is one of the most important Shiite centers in Iraq and the place where Hazrati Ali’s tomb is believed to be located. Davutoğlu was going to be the first Turkish minister to visit Najaf.
Davutoğlu’s planned visit to Kirkuk is also very important. Turkish politicians were not able to visit Kirkuk between the years 1976 and 2006. A delegation of Turkish military officers, politicians and diplomats visited Kirkuk for the first time in 1937 after the Sadabat Pact was signed.
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel visited the city in 1967.
During his visit, Demirel met with a 10-person delegation from the Turkmen Brotherhood Association. The leaders of the delegation, retired Col. Abdullah Abdurrahman and Dr. Necdet Koçak, as well as Dr. Rıza Demirci and Adil Sharif were executed at the order of Saddam in 1980.
President Cevdet Sunay studied at the Kirkuk Military High School in 1910 visited Kirkuk in 1969.
Demirel visited Kirkuk for a second time when he went to attend the opening ceremony of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in 1972. President Fahri Korutürk went to Kirkuk in 1976 and visited the Kirkuk Turkish Cultural Center, where he addressed close to 10,000 Turkmen.
After Korutürk’s visit, wide-scale arrests took place among Turkmen in Kirkuk, and Turkmen were constantly subject to assimilation until the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed. The most recent visit to Kirkuk by Turkish officials was in 2006, when a delegation from the Turkish Parliament, which included Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Balıkesir deputy Turhan Çömez and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tokat deputy Orhan Ziya Diren, visited the city.
Davutoğlu’s Kirkuk visit will be the first visit by a senior-level Turkish official since 1976.
Kirkuk is one of the most important oil fields in Iraq and the center of the Turkmen population in Iraq. It is an important center for Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq. Following 2003, Kurdish groups started intensifying efforts to take control of the city. The central Iraqi government is having trouble countering the desire of Kurds to dominate the city.
Turkey wants to open a third embassy in Kirkuk, after Basra and Arbil. Reopening the Turkish Cultural Center, which is affiliated with the Turkish Ministry of Culture but was closed down during Saddam’s reign, will be an important development in terms of healing the wounds of Kirkuk Turkmen who were oppressed under Saddam’s rule.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-232097-davutoglus-delayed-visit-to-iraq.html
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Davutoğlu’s delayed visit to Iraq
Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Iraq, which was scheduled for Jan. 10-11, 2011, has been postponed for now. The minister is expected to visit the country in the next couple of weeks. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to make a visit to Iraq after Davutoğlu.
There are few hotels in Baghdad, and they are currently undergoing maintenance for the Arab League summit that will be held in Baghdad in March, causing Davutoğlu to keep his delegation at home. Aside from this, Baghdad continues to be the scene of political developments.
The last time Davutoğlu visited Iraq was on Nov. 7, 2010. His visit was going to be an expression of support for the new Iraqi government. During his visit, the preliminary work of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council was going to be carried out. Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai have already visited Iraq to lend their support to the Iraqi government. Last week Iran’s new foreign affairs minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, made his first visit among Arab countries to Iraq. In this respect, Salehi’s visit shows where Iraq stands with regard to Iran’s foreign policy.
Davutoğlu had plans to visit Baghdad, Najaf and Kirkuk. No senior level Turkish diplomat other than Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad, Murat Özcelik, has visited Najaf, which is one of the most important Shiite centers in Iraq and the place where Hazrati Ali’s tomb is believed to be located. Davutoğlu was going to be the first Turkish minister to visit Najaf.
Davutoğlu’s planned visit to Kirkuk is also very important. Turkish politicians were not able to visit Kirkuk between the years 1976 and 2006. A delegation of Turkish military officers, politicians and diplomats visited Kirkuk for the first time in 1937 after the Sadabat Pact was signed.
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel visited the city in 1967.
During his visit, Demirel met with a 10-person delegation from the Turkmen Brotherhood Association. The leaders of the delegation, retired Col. Abdullah Abdurrahman and Dr. Necdet Koçak, as well as Dr. Rıza Demirci and Adil Sharif were executed at the order of Saddam in 1980.
President Cevdet Sunay studied at the Kirkuk Military High School in 1910 visited Kirkuk in 1969.
Demirel visited Kirkuk for a second time when he went to attend the opening ceremony of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in 1972. President Fahri Korutürk went to Kirkuk in 1976 and visited the Kirkuk Turkish Cultural Center, where he addressed close to 10,000 Turkmen.
After Korutürk’s visit, wide-scale arrests took place among Turkmen in Kirkuk, and Turkmen were constantly subject to assimilation until the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed. The most recent visit to Kirkuk by Turkish officials was in 2006, when a delegation from the Turkish Parliament, which included Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Balıkesir deputy Turhan Çömez and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tokat deputy Orhan Ziya Diren, visited the city.
Davutoğlu’s Kirkuk visit will be the first visit by a senior-level Turkish official since 1976.
Kirkuk is one of the most important oil fields in Iraq and the center of the Turkmen population in Iraq. It is an important center for Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq. Following 2003, Kurdish groups started intensifying efforts to take control of the city. The central Iraqi government is having trouble countering the desire of Kurds to dominate the city.
Turkey wants to open a third embassy in Kirkuk, after Basra and Arbil. Reopening the Turkish Cultural Center, which is affiliated with the Turkish Ministry of Culture but was closed down during Saddam’s reign, will be an important development in terms of healing the wounds of Kirkuk Turkmen who were oppressed under Saddam’s rule.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-232097-davutoglus-delayed-visit-to-iraq.html
samedi 27 février 2010
The battle for KERKUK
Note:
Hasan Turan, Kerkuk Provincial Council, appears on this programme.
Sarhad Kadir, Barham Salih and Joost Hilterman also appear on this programme.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2010/02/2010224192645216199.html
On this week's episode of Fault Lines Josh Rushing travels to Northern Iraq to look at one of the most serious divides the country faces. Kurds and Arabs are poising themselves for a face off in the North over land, oil and power.
Kirkuk, a city rich in natural resources that may represent up to one-quarter of Iraq's oil reserves, is the centre knot in a tug of war between the Kurdish Regional Government and central Baghdad.
The Kurds and central Baghdad are both keenly aware that Kirkuk's oil would be enough of an economic resource to allow Kurdistan to finance a move for autonomy.
Could this divide threaten to bring down the state of Iraq? Could the Kurdish Peshmerga and Iraqi army ever face off in a civil war? Will any political solution emerge? Will the upcoming March elections fail to address the critical issue of Kirkuk?
This episode of Fault Lines airs from Thursday, Feburary 25, at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600, 1630; Friday: 0130, 0830; Saturday: 1130, 2330; Sunday: 0630, 2030; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 1230, 1930; Wednesday: 0300.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/faultlines/2010/02/2010224192645216199.html
dimanche 10 janvier 2010
Interview with Iraqi Turkmen Front Chairman Sadettin Ergec
Dr. Sadettin Ergeç, Iraqi Turkmen Front Chairman, Iraqi Parliament Kerkuk Deputy
http://www.orsam.org.tr/en/showArticle.aspx?ID=137
As Iraq is entering a critical phase, ORSAM held an interview with Iraqi Turkmen Front Chairman Saadettin Ergeç on December 25 at the ITF Turkish representative office about the future of the Turkmen society in Iraq. Ergeç shared his opinions regarding politics in Iraq, the electoral law, pre-electoral alliances, developments in Kerkuk, the situation of the Turkmens and relations between Turkey and Turkmens.
Full text
http://www.orsam.org.tr/en/showArticle.aspx?ID=137
As Iraq is entering a critical phase, ORSAM held an interview with Iraqi Turkmen Front Chairman Saadettin Ergeç on December 25 at the ITF Turkish representative office about the future of the Turkmen society in Iraq. Ergeç shared his opinions regarding politics in Iraq, the electoral law, pre-electoral alliances, developments in Kerkuk, the situation of the Turkmens and relations between Turkey and Turkmens.
Full text
vendredi 30 octobre 2009
Arabs and Turkmen in Iraq’s Kerkuk want to seek international protection
By Marwan al-Ani
Azzaman, October 29, 2009
Arab and Turkmen political factions want to ask for international protection if the government fails to safeguard their rights.
In a statement, issued by their representatives in the provincial council and their political leaders, they said conditions in the oil –rich city were worsening and tension escalating.
The parliament has failed to come up with a legislative formula for holding the national elections in the city in January next year.
The Kurds who practically control the city with large numbers of their armed militias deployed in it have vowed to add it to their semi-independent enclave.
“We want a revision of the population counts in the city and no delay in the January elections,” the statement said.
It said since the 2003-U.S. invasion the Kurds have persistently tried to change the demographic character of the city.
The statement said a revision of the count should remove those who flocked to the after the invasion.
“Kirkuk needs more attention and a special status and a sincere attempt to solve outstanding issues,” the statement said.
Azzaman, October 29, 2009
Arab and Turkmen political factions want to ask for international protection if the government fails to safeguard their rights.
In a statement, issued by their representatives in the provincial council and their political leaders, they said conditions in the oil –rich city were worsening and tension escalating.
The parliament has failed to come up with a legislative formula for holding the national elections in the city in January next year.
The Kurds who practically control the city with large numbers of their armed militias deployed in it have vowed to add it to their semi-independent enclave.
“We want a revision of the population counts in the city and no delay in the January elections,” the statement said.
It said since the 2003-U.S. invasion the Kurds have persistently tried to change the demographic character of the city.
The statement said a revision of the count should remove those who flocked to the after the invasion.
“Kirkuk needs more attention and a special status and a sincere attempt to solve outstanding issues,” the statement said.
dimanche 25 octobre 2009
What Ranj Alaaldin does not mention in his article: “The Kirkuk conundrum”
Comment posted in the Guardian:
What Ranj Alaaldin omits to mention in his article: “The Kirkuk conundrum”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/24/iraq-kirkuk-kurds-elections
Facts about the demography and ethnic composition of Kerkuk.
Kerkuk was a TURKMEN city until 1958 when the Communist Iraqi government invited Mustafa Barzani the Kurdish rebel leader back from his exile in Russia. Barzani’s first demand was to include Kerkuk in his proposed autonomous Kurdistan region. From that date the Kurds poured into the city to change its demographics. This campaign intensified in 1970 when Saddam, without consulting the Iraqi people, gave autonomy to the Kurds.
Upon Kurdish insistence on annexing Kerkuk to their autonomous region, Saddam brought Arabs from the South and settled them in Kerkuk.
According to the ration card data base, considered by the United Nations to be a reliable source for information on the Iraqi population, some 12.000 families (Turkmens and Kurds) were expelled from Kerkuk city under the previous regime, one third being Turkmens!
In April 2003, after the US-UK invasion of Iraq the Kurdish militias (peshmerga) invaded Kerkuk city with the blessing of the US military, they took control of the city and appointed Kurds in all the important positions. The first thing the Kurds did when they invaded Kerkuk was to loot and put fire to the city’s land registry office, in order to destroy the deeds which were proof that Kerkuk was a Turkmen city.
Since 2003 the Kurds have been trying to include Kerkuk officially into their Kurdistan through a referendum that they are sure of winning. For that purpose they settled 600.000 Kurdish emigrants from Iran, Syrian and other parts of Northern Iraq in Kerkuk, changing the demographics of the city from 750.000 on 10th April 2003 to 1.35 million nowadays.
Today, citing ‘Article 140 of the constitution which was written under US OCCUPATION (see: http://gulfanalysis.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/new-information-in-the-tawke-gate-affair-galbraith-was-also-a-paid-dno-consultant/ )
the Kurds insist to start the ‘normalization process in Kerkuk Province. But their interpretation of ‘normalization is to establish Kurdish hegemony in a region of Iraq which is inhabited by Turkmens, Arabs and Kurds and which has never been part of ‘Kurdistan’.
Arabs and Turkmens are opposed to the annexation of oil rich Kerkuk to the Kurdish Region, they maintain that Kerkuk is an Iraqi city and that its wealth belongs to all the Iraqi people.
See:http://merryabla64.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/the-turkmens-of-iraq/
What Ranj Alaaldin omits to mention in his article: “The Kirkuk conundrum”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/24/iraq-kirkuk-kurds-elections
Facts about the demography and ethnic composition of Kerkuk.
Kerkuk was a TURKMEN city until 1958 when the Communist Iraqi government invited Mustafa Barzani the Kurdish rebel leader back from his exile in Russia. Barzani’s first demand was to include Kerkuk in his proposed autonomous Kurdistan region. From that date the Kurds poured into the city to change its demographics. This campaign intensified in 1970 when Saddam, without consulting the Iraqi people, gave autonomy to the Kurds.
Upon Kurdish insistence on annexing Kerkuk to their autonomous region, Saddam brought Arabs from the South and settled them in Kerkuk.
According to the ration card data base, considered by the United Nations to be a reliable source for information on the Iraqi population, some 12.000 families (Turkmens and Kurds) were expelled from Kerkuk city under the previous regime, one third being Turkmens!
In April 2003, after the US-UK invasion of Iraq the Kurdish militias (peshmerga) invaded Kerkuk city with the blessing of the US military, they took control of the city and appointed Kurds in all the important positions. The first thing the Kurds did when they invaded Kerkuk was to loot and put fire to the city’s land registry office, in order to destroy the deeds which were proof that Kerkuk was a Turkmen city.
Since 2003 the Kurds have been trying to include Kerkuk officially into their Kurdistan through a referendum that they are sure of winning. For that purpose they settled 600.000 Kurdish emigrants from Iran, Syrian and other parts of Northern Iraq in Kerkuk, changing the demographics of the city from 750.000 on 10th April 2003 to 1.35 million nowadays.
Today, citing ‘Article 140 of the constitution which was written under US OCCUPATION (see: http://gulfanalysis.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/new-information-in-the-tawke-gate-affair-galbraith-was-also-a-paid-dno-consultant/ )
the Kurds insist to start the ‘normalization process in Kerkuk Province. But their interpretation of ‘normalization is to establish Kurdish hegemony in a region of Iraq which is inhabited by Turkmens, Arabs and Kurds and which has never been part of ‘Kurdistan’.
Arabs and Turkmens are opposed to the annexation of oil rich Kerkuk to the Kurdish Region, they maintain that Kerkuk is an Iraqi city and that its wealth belongs to all the Iraqi people.
See:http://merryabla64.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/the-turkmens-of-iraq/
Disinformation About Kerkuk on BBC
Disinformation About Kerkuk
Orhan Ketene
To whom it may concern at BBC:
It is very disappointing to see the most prestigious news site in the world do such a mistake as in BBC correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse’s report about Kerkuk on Tuesday, 20 October 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8315893.stm
In his report he states :
“Kirkuk is divided between Arabs, Kurds and a small number of Turkmens. All three communities claim the city and its surrounding lands as their own.”
Another wrong information! There were no Arabs or Kurds in Kerkuk for centuries. I am wondering if Gabriel is misinformed or is he disinforming the public? Whichever is true it is unjustifiable.
Let me tell you and others, the simple facts of Kerkuk:
Kerkuk remained a Turkmen city up until 1958 when the Communist Iraqi government declared the Kurds as partners of the Arabs and neglected the Turkmens. They invited Mustafa Barzani the Kurdish rebel leader back from his exile in Russia. Whose first demand was to include Kerkuk in his proposed autonomous Kurdistan. From that date on, the Kurds poured into the city to change the demographics. This campaign intensified in 1970 when Saddam, without consulting the Iraqi people, gave autonomy to the Kurds and neglected the Turkmens again.
Upon Kurdish insistance on Kerkuk, Saddam filled the city with Arabs from the south.
Before the American invasion of Iraq, and despite all the Kurdification and Arabization efforts, Kerkuk was still a Turkmen majority city with Arabs as one third and the Kurds as one quarter.
It was the Americans who allowed the 600.000 Kurds to pour into the city because they were angry with the Turks decision not to allow passage to the American troops through Turkey to Iraq.
Turkmens paid the heaviest price for a quarrel between US and Turkey which they have no responsibility or control what so ever.
The only reason for Kurdish insistance on including Kerkuk in their federal Kurdistan is because they need Kerkuk’s oil for their future independent state.
Therefore, the information that the Turkmens are a little minority in Kerkuk is false. The Turkmens are the original and majority inhabitants of Kerkuk.The names of the districts of original Kerkuk (before the Kurdish and Arabic influx) are Turkmen names.
Orhan Ketene
To whom it may concern at BBC:
It is very disappointing to see the most prestigious news site in the world do such a mistake as in BBC correspondent Gabriel Gatehouse’s report about Kerkuk on Tuesday, 20 October 2009.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8315893.stm
In his report he states :
“Kirkuk is divided between Arabs, Kurds and a small number of Turkmens. All three communities claim the city and its surrounding lands as their own.”
A small number of Turkmens? Where did he get this information?
If this statement came from correspondents of other countries, it would have been excused. But to come from a British correspondent? That is unacceptable.
Because Britain dominated Iraq for fourty years (1918-1958) and they knew exactly who is who and how many.It would have been very beneficial if he made a little research in the British archives or read Cecil J. Edmonds book “Kurds, Turks and Arabs” where he clearly stated in the twenties that the city of Kerkuk was a Turkmen city.
Because Britain dominated Iraq for fourty years (1918-1958) and they knew exactly who is who and how many.It would have been very beneficial if he made a little research in the British archives or read Cecil J. Edmonds book “Kurds, Turks and Arabs” where he clearly stated in the twenties that the city of Kerkuk was a Turkmen city.
In another paragraph he states:“Inside the city itself, Arabs and Kurds and Turkmens have lived alongside one another for centuries.”
Another wrong information! There were no Arabs or Kurds in Kerkuk for centuries. I am wondering if Gabriel is misinformed or is he disinforming the public? Whichever is true it is unjustifiable.
Let me tell you and others, the simple facts of Kerkuk:
Kerkuk remained a Turkmen city up until 1958 when the Communist Iraqi government declared the Kurds as partners of the Arabs and neglected the Turkmens. They invited Mustafa Barzani the Kurdish rebel leader back from his exile in Russia. Whose first demand was to include Kerkuk in his proposed autonomous Kurdistan. From that date on, the Kurds poured into the city to change the demographics. This campaign intensified in 1970 when Saddam, without consulting the Iraqi people, gave autonomy to the Kurds and neglected the Turkmens again.
Upon Kurdish insistance on Kerkuk, Saddam filled the city with Arabs from the south.
Before the American invasion of Iraq, and despite all the Kurdification and Arabization efforts, Kerkuk was still a Turkmen majority city with Arabs as one third and the Kurds as one quarter.
It was the Americans who allowed the 600.000 Kurds to pour into the city because they were angry with the Turks decision not to allow passage to the American troops through Turkey to Iraq.
Turkmens paid the heaviest price for a quarrel between US and Turkey which they have no responsibility or control what so ever.
The only reason for Kurdish insistance on including Kerkuk in their federal Kurdistan is because they need Kerkuk’s oil for their future independent state.
Therefore, the information that the Turkmens are a little minority in Kerkuk is false. The Turkmens are the original and majority inhabitants of Kerkuk.The names of the districts of original Kerkuk (before the Kurdish and Arabic influx) are Turkmen names.
The names on the cemeteries are of the Turkmens.
Just as the large numbers of Indians in London does not make it an Indian city so does the large numbers of Kurds in Kerkuk does not make it a Kurdish city.
For more information Gabriel and other at BBC can contact the Iraqi Turkmen Front London representative Mrs. Sundus Abbas at itf_london@hotmail.com or many Turkmen websites which can supply enough information about the Turkmenity of Kerkuk (www.kerkukmedya.com, www.kerkuk.net, www.turkmen.nl)
Yours truly,
Orhan Ketene
Orhan Ketene
oketene@hotmail.com
jeudi 2 juillet 2009
Juan Cole on Kerkuk's Turkmens and Arabs, Iraqi Oil, KRG, etc.
July 2, 2009 at 8:48 am
The Iraqi civil wars kicked off by the American invasion of 2003 continue. I’m sure a lot of observers think it is all one internal war, but it is not. It is multiple. Nor is the bombing relevant to the American withdrawal from the cities, as some press reports are implying, since there were never very many US troops in Kurdistan or the Iraqi north generally. (Though settling the Arab-Kurdish problem before they leave will be essential to a good exit for Americans).
A bombing like this in Kirkuk means something different than a similar event in Baghdad or in Shiite Nasiriyah in the south. A lot of the violence in the south is among Shiite militias; there are few Sunnis, and their freedom of movement is constrained (a Tikriti “r” is different from the “r” used in the south, and so the religio-ethnic difference can sometimes be heard; plus, Sunnis typically don’t know the details of the lives of the 12 Imams sacred to the Shiites and so can fairly easily be caught out.)
A bombing in Baghdad typically indicates continued conflict between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs, though my best guess is that Sunni Arabs are only 10-15% of Baghdad now, so that the bombings are more helpless raging revenge than effective guerrilla politics.
But in Kirkuk, even if it is the radical vigilantes (”Salafi jihadis” or what the US press calls ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’) that are behind the bombing, it has a different significance. Kirkuk is the arena for a potentially epochal struggle between the Arabs (both Sunni and Shiite) and the Kurds (mostly Sunni, who do not speak Arabic as their mother tongue).
Tuesday’s blast was the second major such attack in a week and a half, since 70 were killed in Kirkuk in a bombing just 10 days ago.
The Kurdistan Regional Government is a special federal region within Iraq, comprising what used to be 3 provinces that have now been conjoined into one administration. But the KRG is not satisfied with this territory. Its leaders what to annex large swathes of Iraq proper, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. The Kurds, who were favored by the Neocons and assisted on the ground by powerful American supporters such as Peter Galbraith and Brendan O’Leary, had an article put into the new Iraqi constitution demanding a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, to be conducted in that province, by the end of 2007.
It never happened, because it was a sort of ultimatum, and military historians know that ultimatums usually kick off a war. Since the Kurdish authorities largely control the police and security forces in Kirkuk province (a legacy of the cooperation of the Kurdish Peshmerga paramilitary in helping the US take the city of Kirkuk in the 2003 war), the Kurdistan authorities have been in a good position to flood the province with Kurdish immigrants, some of them returnees who had been ethnically cleansed in the name of Arabization by Saddam Hussein, but some at least of whom are probably new to the province. So the Kurds would probably win a referendum.
But the Arabs and Turkmen, who together form at least a plurality, are die-hard against being dragooned into Kurdistan (remember, the practice in the KRG has been to erase provincial borders and meld the administration into one, which means that Kirkuk Arabs and Turkmen will be a tiny minority in the sea of a unified Kurdistan).
On Monday, 50 Iraqi members of parliament had entered a protest against the draft constitution for Kurdistan, which will be submitted to a referendum in the KRG, since it explicitly claims Kirkuk and parts of Ninevah and Diyala provinces and appears to endorse a Greater Kurdistan that would threaten Turkey, Iran and Syria as well as Arab Iraq. The new constitution is also being criticized by Kurdish secularists for making Islam the state religion and forbidding the civil legislature to pass laws contrary to sharia or Islamic canon law.
Kurdistan leaders are increasingly intolerant of press criticism, having on more than one occasion jailed journalists or confiscated runs of publications.
So the bombing is not just a manifestation of fundamentalist terrorism, though it may be that. It is political, and aims at achieving political aims, in a way that the random and ineffectual bombings in Baghdad no longer can hope to.
I am not sympathetic to movements coming out of 19th century romantic nationalism, which tend to reify ethnicity in an almost racist manner and posit essentialist connections between land and people (especially silly in those parts of the Middle East, such as Iraq, where a third to a half of people were pastoralists wandering around until the twentieth century).
The Arab-Kurdish divide in Iraq is extremely unfortunate and economically irrational. If Iraq can ever reestablish security and develop the southern oil fields, which are enormous, Kurds will be drawn down south as workers in large numbers, and get spread around the country. The Kirkuk fields are old, water-logged and on the way to being worked out. Iraq’s future probably lies elsewhere and therefore probably so does the future of Kurdish citizens of Iraq. Kurds would be wiser to forget about trying to control territory in the 19th century way and surrender to the messiness, ethnic mixing and multiple identities, and uprootedness of postmodern life. And nothing better exemplifies such postmodernism than the polyglot hydrocarbon states of the Gulf.
If Kurds aren’t careful they’ll be stuck landlocked, with small resources, and surrounded by powerful local enemies fearful of their separatism, while Nepalis, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans get rich working in the oil economy of the Arab Shiite south of Iraq.
http://www.juancole.com/
The Iraqi civil wars kicked off by the American invasion of 2003 continue. I’m sure a lot of observers think it is all one internal war, but it is not. It is multiple. Nor is the bombing relevant to the American withdrawal from the cities, as some press reports are implying, since there were never very many US troops in Kurdistan or the Iraqi north generally. (Though settling the Arab-Kurdish problem before they leave will be essential to a good exit for Americans).
A bombing like this in Kirkuk means something different than a similar event in Baghdad or in Shiite Nasiriyah in the south. A lot of the violence in the south is among Shiite militias; there are few Sunnis, and their freedom of movement is constrained (a Tikriti “r” is different from the “r” used in the south, and so the religio-ethnic difference can sometimes be heard; plus, Sunnis typically don’t know the details of the lives of the 12 Imams sacred to the Shiites and so can fairly easily be caught out.)
A bombing in Baghdad typically indicates continued conflict between Sunni Arabs and Shiite Arabs, though my best guess is that Sunni Arabs are only 10-15% of Baghdad now, so that the bombings are more helpless raging revenge than effective guerrilla politics.
But in Kirkuk, even if it is the radical vigilantes (”Salafi jihadis” or what the US press calls ‘al-Qaeda in Iraq’) that are behind the bombing, it has a different significance. Kirkuk is the arena for a potentially epochal struggle between the Arabs (both Sunni and Shiite) and the Kurds (mostly Sunni, who do not speak Arabic as their mother tongue).
Tuesday’s blast was the second major such attack in a week and a half, since 70 were killed in Kirkuk in a bombing just 10 days ago.
The Kurdistan Regional Government is a special federal region within Iraq, comprising what used to be 3 provinces that have now been conjoined into one administration. But the KRG is not satisfied with this territory. Its leaders what to annex large swathes of Iraq proper, including the oil-rich province of Kirkuk. The Kurds, who were favored by the Neocons and assisted on the ground by powerful American supporters such as Peter Galbraith and Brendan O’Leary, had an article put into the new Iraqi constitution demanding a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, to be conducted in that province, by the end of 2007.
It never happened, because it was a sort of ultimatum, and military historians know that ultimatums usually kick off a war. Since the Kurdish authorities largely control the police and security forces in Kirkuk province (a legacy of the cooperation of the Kurdish Peshmerga paramilitary in helping the US take the city of Kirkuk in the 2003 war), the Kurdistan authorities have been in a good position to flood the province with Kurdish immigrants, some of them returnees who had been ethnically cleansed in the name of Arabization by Saddam Hussein, but some at least of whom are probably new to the province. So the Kurds would probably win a referendum.
But the Arabs and Turkmen, who together form at least a plurality, are die-hard against being dragooned into Kurdistan (remember, the practice in the KRG has been to erase provincial borders and meld the administration into one, which means that Kirkuk Arabs and Turkmen will be a tiny minority in the sea of a unified Kurdistan).
On Monday, 50 Iraqi members of parliament had entered a protest against the draft constitution for Kurdistan, which will be submitted to a referendum in the KRG, since it explicitly claims Kirkuk and parts of Ninevah and Diyala provinces and appears to endorse a Greater Kurdistan that would threaten Turkey, Iran and Syria as well as Arab Iraq. The new constitution is also being criticized by Kurdish secularists for making Islam the state religion and forbidding the civil legislature to pass laws contrary to sharia or Islamic canon law.
Kurdistan leaders are increasingly intolerant of press criticism, having on more than one occasion jailed journalists or confiscated runs of publications.
So the bombing is not just a manifestation of fundamentalist terrorism, though it may be that. It is political, and aims at achieving political aims, in a way that the random and ineffectual bombings in Baghdad no longer can hope to.
I am not sympathetic to movements coming out of 19th century romantic nationalism, which tend to reify ethnicity in an almost racist manner and posit essentialist connections between land and people (especially silly in those parts of the Middle East, such as Iraq, where a third to a half of people were pastoralists wandering around until the twentieth century).
The Arab-Kurdish divide in Iraq is extremely unfortunate and economically irrational. If Iraq can ever reestablish security and develop the southern oil fields, which are enormous, Kurds will be drawn down south as workers in large numbers, and get spread around the country. The Kirkuk fields are old, water-logged and on the way to being worked out. Iraq’s future probably lies elsewhere and therefore probably so does the future of Kurdish citizens of Iraq. Kurds would be wiser to forget about trying to control territory in the 19th century way and surrender to the messiness, ethnic mixing and multiple identities, and uprootedness of postmodern life. And nothing better exemplifies such postmodernism than the polyglot hydrocarbon states of the Gulf.
If Kurds aren’t careful they’ll be stuck landlocked, with small resources, and surrounded by powerful local enemies fearful of their separatism, while Nepalis, Pakistanis and Sri Lankans get rich working in the oil economy of the Arab Shiite south of Iraq.
http://www.juancole.com/
lundi 30 mars 2009
UN suggest power-sharing for Kerkuk
March 30, 2009
AP Exclusive: UN suggests power-sharing for Kerkuk
Seeking to head off an explosion of ethnic violence, the United Nations will call for a power-sharing system of government for Iraq’s deeply divided region of Kerkuk in the oil-rich north.
A draft U.N. plan, outlined to The Associated Press by two Western officials, aims to defuse dangerous tensions.
AP Exclusive: UN suggests power-sharing for Kerkuk
Seeking to head off an explosion of ethnic violence, the United Nations will call for a power-sharing system of government for Iraq’s deeply divided region of Kerkuk in the oil-rich north.
A draft U.N. plan, outlined to The Associated Press by two Western officials, aims to defuse dangerous tensions.
jeudi 5 mars 2009
Kerkuk Council Member Predicts Permanent US Base in Kerkuk
Juan Cole's Comment
http://www.juancole.com/
al-Zaman reports in Arabic that the arrival of United Nations counselors in Kirkuk with an aim of compiling a list of 'original' inhabitants of the city has provoked a wave of assassinations in the disputed city.
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Alliance renewed its call for Article 140 of the constitution to be implemented (i.e. for a referendum to be held in Kirkuk Province on whether it should join the Kurdistan Regional Government.
It is thought that the Kurds, who control the security forces, have flooded other Kurds into the province, such that they are now about half of its population.
The other two major groups are the Arabs and Turkmen. They typically oppose the plan to join Kurdistan. Jala Naftji, a Turkmen member of the Kirkuk governing council, told Al-Zaman that he had been afraid of an increasing security vacuum in the province, but has been reassured since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sent an Iraqi Army unit up. He also expected that an enduring US base would be established in the city of Kirkuk.
He said that in the last meeting of the governing council with Gen. Ray Odierno, the latter had pledged that the US would not give up the security mission before the Kirkuk issue was resolved. The deputy governor of Kirkuk, Rakan Said al-Juburi, told the paper, "If there is not a joint administration [of Kirkuk Province] and balance throughout the security agencies among the various ethnicities in order to resolve the complicated problem of Kirkuk, I believe that conflict with break out once the Americans withdraw."
http://www.juancole.com/
al-Zaman reports in Arabic that the arrival of United Nations counselors in Kirkuk with an aim of compiling a list of 'original' inhabitants of the city has provoked a wave of assassinations in the disputed city.
Meanwhile, the Kurdistan Alliance renewed its call for Article 140 of the constitution to be implemented (i.e. for a referendum to be held in Kirkuk Province on whether it should join the Kurdistan Regional Government.
It is thought that the Kurds, who control the security forces, have flooded other Kurds into the province, such that they are now about half of its population.
The other two major groups are the Arabs and Turkmen. They typically oppose the plan to join Kurdistan. Jala Naftji, a Turkmen member of the Kirkuk governing council, told Al-Zaman that he had been afraid of an increasing security vacuum in the province, but has been reassured since Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sent an Iraqi Army unit up. He also expected that an enduring US base would be established in the city of Kirkuk.
He said that in the last meeting of the governing council with Gen. Ray Odierno, the latter had pledged that the US would not give up the security mission before the Kirkuk issue was resolved. The deputy governor of Kirkuk, Rakan Said al-Juburi, told the paper, "If there is not a joint administration [of Kirkuk Province] and balance throughout the security agencies among the various ethnicities in order to resolve the complicated problem of Kirkuk, I believe that conflict with break out once the Americans withdraw."
dimanche 16 novembre 2008
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
dimanche 26 octobre 2008
CNN's lack of objectivity and misinformation in "The Struggle for Kerkuk" programme
October 26, 2008
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2008/10/23/mme.a.struggle.for.kirkuk.cnn
CNN:
“Kirkuk in northern Iraq has some 10 billion barrels of oil. Both the Kurds and the Arabs claim ownership of the city. MME looks at the struggle for Kirkuk.” “For the Kurds, it’s about regaining lands Saddam’s regime took from them, for the Arabs its about keeping control over what they call “the breadbasket” of Iraq — which also has some 10 billion barrels of oil buried in Kurdish soil. With no political resolution in sight, MME looks at the struggle for Kirkuk. “
—–
My comments re CNN’s programme Marketplace Middle-East, ”The Struggle for Kerkuk” Arwa Damon reporting from Kerkuk and Erbil on October 23, 2008
In the programme “The Struggle for KERKUK” Arwa Damon describes KERKUK as “an ethnically mixed city “, she mentions the Arabs and the Kurds but not the TURKMENS despite the fact that the TURKMENS are the city’s original inhabitants and the north of Iraq’s second main ethnic component.
She interviewed several Arab and Kurdish politicians, allowing them to say “what they want or don’t want”, but it is quite shocking that she did not give the Turkmen politicians the same opportunity to express their views. Consequently, her report gives those who watched the programme a false picture of the situation in Kerkuk.
Interviewing representatives of the two ethnic groups who have armed militias, the Arabs and the Kurds, and ignoring the unarmed Turkmens is a strange conception of “democracy” and “fair reporting”.
KERKUK is the Turkmens’ capital city and main cultural centre in Iraq, therefore THEY are the first to be concerned with the fate of THEIR city and ignoring them proves once again that CNN reporters in Iraq due to their lack of objectivity and professionalism are misinforming their viewers.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2008/10/23/mme.a.struggle.for.kirkuk.cnn
CNN:
“Kirkuk in northern Iraq has some 10 billion barrels of oil. Both the Kurds and the Arabs claim ownership of the city. MME looks at the struggle for Kirkuk.” “For the Kurds, it’s about regaining lands Saddam’s regime took from them, for the Arabs its about keeping control over what they call “the breadbasket” of Iraq — which also has some 10 billion barrels of oil buried in Kurdish soil. With no political resolution in sight, MME looks at the struggle for Kirkuk. “
—–
My comments re CNN’s programme Marketplace Middle-East, ”The Struggle for Kerkuk” Arwa Damon reporting from Kerkuk and Erbil on October 23, 2008
In the programme “The Struggle for KERKUK” Arwa Damon describes KERKUK as “an ethnically mixed city “, she mentions the Arabs and the Kurds but not the TURKMENS despite the fact that the TURKMENS are the city’s original inhabitants and the north of Iraq’s second main ethnic component.
She interviewed several Arab and Kurdish politicians, allowing them to say “what they want or don’t want”, but it is quite shocking that she did not give the Turkmen politicians the same opportunity to express their views. Consequently, her report gives those who watched the programme a false picture of the situation in Kerkuk.
Interviewing representatives of the two ethnic groups who have armed militias, the Arabs and the Kurds, and ignoring the unarmed Turkmens is a strange conception of “democracy” and “fair reporting”.
KERKUK is the Turkmens’ capital city and main cultural centre in Iraq, therefore THEY are the first to be concerned with the fate of THEIR city and ignoring them proves once again that CNN reporters in Iraq due to their lack of objectivity and professionalism are misinforming their viewers.
dimanche 17 août 2008
KERKUK TURKMENELI - HOYRAT SONGS
Turkmen musicians‘HOYRAT’ SONGS – CHANTS ‘HOYRAT’
The most popular and indigenous songs are Hoyrats. Hoyrats, longplay songs with nearly twenty different melodious voices forming rich literary texts are typical Turkmen musical works.
Hoyrats are classified according to tunes into Muhalif, Beshiri, Kesik, Yolcu, Ömergele, Muçyla, Yskenderi and Matari and regarded as typical Turkmen songs in Iraq and elsewhere.
Short plays/Kyrykhavas are locally called Beste. Beste is divided into groups based on the subject matters, such as love, homesickness and death; nature (pastoral), games, ceremonies etc. Songs depicting bravery and historical events are called Neshide or Sharky.
To listen to Hoyrats please click on links below:
Pour écouter des Hoyrats veuillez cliquer sur les liens ci-dessous :
For biography of some Turkmen singers please see: http://members.lycos.nl/Kerkuk/B_kersa.html
mardi 22 juillet 2008
INDEPENDENT JOURNALIST KILLED IN KERKUK
Kurdish journalist killed in Iraq
The Associated Press
Tue, Jul 22, 2008 (1:54 a.m.)
Iraqi police say gunmen have killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kerkuk.
Soran Mama Hama, a 23-year-old reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday. Police say the motive is unknown.
But the head of a local journalists' union blames the killing on gangs trying to silence reporters who want to expose corruption. Latif Satih Faraj calls the killing a "criminal act" aimed at halting "the free speech of independent journalists in Kerkuk."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, not including the most recent death.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/22/kurdish-journalist-killed-in-iraq/
The Associated Press
Tue, Jul 22, 2008 (1:54 a.m.)
Iraqi police say gunmen have killed a Kurdish journalist near the northern city of Kerkuk.
Soran Mama Hama, a 23-year-old reporter for the Kurdish-language magazine Leven, was shot late Monday. Police say the motive is unknown.
But the head of a local journalists' union blames the killing on gangs trying to silence reporters who want to expose corruption. Latif Satih Faraj calls the killing a "criminal act" aimed at halting "the free speech of independent journalists in Kerkuk."
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 129 journalists and 50 media support workers have been killed in Iraq since the U.S. invasion in 2003, not including the most recent death.
http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/jul/22/kurdish-journalist-killed-in-iraq/
mercredi 9 juillet 2008
Kerkuk problem and the Article 140: Defining Alternatives
SOITM PRESENTATION AT THE CONFERENCE
‘Kerkuk problem and the Article 140:
Defining Alternatives
The views of Kerkuk’s Turkmens and Arabs”
At the European Parliament in Brussels
‘Kerkuk problem and the Article 140:
Defining Alternatives
The views of Kerkuk’s Turkmens and Arabs”
At the European Parliament in Brussels
23rd June 2008.
Kerkuk
Today, we are going to discuss the Kerkuk issue, which is considered as one of the major and long standing problems of Iraq. It is now about to worsen the already deteriorated condition of Iraq.
Kerkuk region is famous for its huge oil reserves,1 natural gas and sulfur, the shallowest oil wells, the best oil qualities, and the vast fertile lands. In Kerkuk there are grounds which burn with scratch.
Kerkuk city is the city of the eternal fire burning day and night; it streams continually as if from a spring, illuminating the skies of Kerkuk for millennia. Kerkuk is also the city of Prophet Daniel.
Kerkuk is one of the richest cities in the world, it is constantly ignored. Kerkuk has an excellent river bed but without water, the infrastructure remained ill-developed as the municipality services have never been improved. The healthcare was by no means developed. It is a city with a very poor urbanization. Additionally, Kerkuk has been regularly exposed to the demographical changes and its original inhabitants suffered continuously.
Kerkuk problem is the main factor which displaced forcedly or willingly hundreds of thousands of Iraqis from the south to the north, the same factor exposed the original Kerkuk communities to the deportation and systematical assimilation. After the occupation another phase started which saw the great wave of the northerners being brought into Kerkuk and the Kerkuk communities’ exposed to marginalization.
In all these events, the non democratic racist mentalities played a major role. Additionally, the unwise policies of the occupier amplified the extremism and further complicated Kerkuk problem. It is the time for us as the Iraqis to adopt the principles of democracy and work to spread the culture of human rights.
Western Literature
And Kerkuk city
Whereas the unopposed Ba’ath regime worked to own Kerkuk region before occupation, the Kurdish authorities who has already gained the compassion and the huge political support of the west started to control the city and claim the ownership of the region.
No doubt that the impressing of the Kurdish nature over the Kerkuk region in the western literature can be considered one of the significant factors which play today an important role in complicating the Kerkuk problem. A large numbers of western publications, even some academic sources, of the later half century had almost imposed the Kurdish nature over the Kerkuk region and even over the city of Kerkuk.
· Willium Safire, an author, columnist, and former USA presidential speechwriter considered Kerkuk the Kurd’s ancestral home.2
· Paul McEnroe, an award-winning investigative reporter made Kerkuk city the Jerusalem of the Kurds and claimed that the city is populated mostly by the Kurds.3
· Luke Harding a Guardian correspondent considered Kerkuk a predominantly Kurdish city.4
· Maggy Zanger, teaches journalism and was the director of the Institute for War and Peace in Iraq said that Kerkuk city has been with Kurdish majority for hundreds of years.5
· Carole O'Leary is a Research Professor in the Center for Global Peace considered Kerkuk as historically Kurdish city and predominately Kurdish.6
· The Middle East specialist Robert Soeterik described Kerkuk as historical Kurdish region.7
In fact, Kerkuk city has never been with a Kurdish majority and no even a single expert source describes the city as the Kurdish city. Kerkuk city has always been described by the specialists on the north of Iraq with a Turkmen majority until 1970s.8-28 Thereafter, the Arabification processes increased the Arabs and, later on, the Kurdification processes increased the number of the Kurds in the city.
I would present another two interesting cases which demonstrate how the realities of Kerkuk region are distorted in the western literature in favor of the Kurds:
In a long article entitled “Kurdish Ambition” for Mr. Lolke van der Heide, published in NRC newspaper at 25 January 2007. He says: “Kurdistan smells oil… The largest obstacle in the region is the position of Kerkuk. This original Kurdish city remained in the 1970s out of the Autonomous Kurdistan”29
I called him and asked him: how he knows that Kerkuk is a historical Kurdish city, and if there was an autonomous Kurdistan before 1970s? He simply said to me that he is not a specialist in the region.
In his study entitled “The Shabak and the Kakais: Dynamics of Ethnicity in Iraqi Kurdistan” Dr. Leezenberg commits a serious mistake in favor of the Kurds. He says:30
“In the 1970s, Turkmen nationalists wanted to present the Kikais as a Turkmen subgroup: thus, the Kakai poet Hijri Dede, who had written works in Persian, Kurdish and Gorani (but not in Turkish) was made a member of the Turkmen Writer's Union in Baghdad”.
Please note, he says, in 1970s Dede was appointed by Turkmen, while Dede died on 11 December 1952. He also says that Dede did not write in Turkish, Dede wrote mainly in Turkmen and has only a few poems in Kurdish.31
By hundreds of such publications, the western community had been taught a large number of misleading information about the region’s history, geography and even about the Kurdish sufferings. The several hundreds Halapja victims made several thousands and the number of the victims of Anfal atrocity operations of 1988 increased more than 10 folds in the western literature.
And Kerkuk province
Relating to the population nature of Kerkuk province as a whole, until the end of the 19th century, there is almost no a source which describes Kerkuk province of 1976 as a Kurdish inhabited region other than the district of Chamchamal. Despite that the Kurdish movement toward the west into Iraq continued along the 19th century, the Kerkuk region remained with the Turkmen majority. This can be easily learned from the narratives of tens of the western travelers passed through the Kerkuk region.32-79
Unfortunately the early history of the modern Iraq was written by the political officers of the English mandates: Longrigg, Edmonds, Lyon, Hay, Soane and others. They were all politically minded and most of them were well known supporters of the Kurdish interests.
Professor Fieldhouse, from Jesus college of Cambridge describes the English political officer Lyon as a devoted supporter of the interests of the Kurds.80 Lyon himself considers Edmonds as a supporter of the Kurdish interests.81
The Kurdish issues were disproportionally and intensively treated in the works of these authors imposing directly or indirectly the Kurdish nature on the north of Iraq and on Kerkuk region. This had been synchronized by the marginalization of Turkmen in Iraq due to the different geopolitical factors, of which the main was the Mosul problem.
With the intensification of the Kurdish settlement in Kerkuk region along the 20th century, the Kerkuk province started to be described as with a Kurdish majority mainly by Edmonds. He can be considered the first author who greatly exaggerated the size of the Kurdish population in the province of Kerkuk as a whole.
In his estimation of the Kurdish population size in Kerkuk province in 1947, Edmonds unusually increases the percentages of the Kurds to 53%.82 Edmonds wrongly considers the language of many Bayat regions Arabic and regards the Amirli regions as a Kurdified region.83 Figures of the Iraqi census of 1957 falsify Edmonds and put the percentage of the Kurds in Kerkuk province to 48%. If we consider the continuous Kurdish immigration into Kerkuk between 1947 and 1957, then the figure of Edmonds should be further decreased. Unfortunately, the majority of the writers in Kurdish issues repeats the figures of Edmonds and considers Kerkuk with such high Kurdish majority, as an example David McDowall in his very well known and widely distributed book “A Modern History of the Kurds” describes Kerkuk with 53% Kurds.84
Furthermore, in the census of 1957; the total population number of the Turkmens in Iraq was put into only 136.200, which makes 2% of the general population. Certainly, there are no experts in the history of Iraq who agree today with this percentage of Turkmen population size.
Moreover, in contrary to the statistics of the census of 1957, the experts on the Iraq, McDowall and Batatu, considered the Turkmen population size in Kerkuk city just above half. As a result the error in the figures of the census of 1957 is about 13%.
Additionally, the figures of the Total population number of the Iraqi Turkmens were corrected to 567,000 in the statistics of the year 1958. This puts the percentage of the Iraqi Turkmens to 9%. This information was approved by the report number 735 of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which states: 85, 86
“No reliable contemporary data are available on the size of Turkmen population. The 1957 Iraqi census – the last in which the Turkmens were permitted to register – counted 567,000 Turkmens (9% of the population) among Iraq’s population of 6,300,000. The census also counted 819,000 Kurds (13% of the population).
This means that the Turkmen population size was about 5 folds underestimated. Despite this miscalculation, the Turkmens were the majority in Kerkuk according to the census of 1957.
(Table 1)
As a result:
· The statistics of the census of 1957 related to Kerkuk province should be considered unreliable, which should not be used for the determination of the fate of such an important city with different ethnic communities.
· And the widely spread data that the Kurds are the majority in Kerkuk province as a whole should also be questioned.
Please click on the link below to read the presentation:
http://www.turkmen.nl/1A_soitm/15-F2108.doc
dimanche 29 juin 2008
Dr Hassan Aydinli, ITF Europe Representative's intervention at Kerkuk Conference at EU Parliament on 23 June 2008
Dr Hassan Aydinli, ITF Europe Representative’s interventions at
Conference: “Kerkuk Problem and Article 140: Dealing with Alternatives”
The views of Kerkuk’s Turkmen and Arabs
at the EU Parliament in Brussels on 23rd June 2008.
Conference: “Kerkuk Problem and Article 140: Dealing with Alternatives”
The views of Kerkuk’s Turkmen and Arabs
at the EU Parliament in Brussels on 23rd June 2008.
What follows is a résumé of Dr. Hassan Aydinli’s interventions.
First intervention:
At one point during the conference a Kurdish ‘agent provocateur’ (who had previously been taking individual photographs of all the people who attended the conference) and who presented himself as a ‘Middle East Journalist’, abruptly and vehemently interfered saying that the conference was pure propaganda, that Kurds had not been invited as speakers and adding that he defied anyone to give instances where Kurds had killed Assyrians or Turkmens.
Dr. Hassan Aydinli immediately disputed his allegations by showing the attendees a list of names and photographs of Turkmens who have been massacred by Kurds in 1959.
Ms. Ana Gomes, MEP, answered the Kurd’s false claims that no Kurds had been invited as speakers at the Conference, saying that she had sent out invitations but that no Kurdish representative had shown their willingness or accepted to attend.
On hearing this, the Kurdish agent provocateur left the conference.
Second intervention:
Later during the conference Dr. Hassan Aydinli took the floor to react to MEP, Ms. Ana Gomes’ speech, during which she said that the ‘pragmatist Kurds had recently declared in Dubai that they were willing to compromise and to share power in Kerkuk’ .
Ms. Ana Gomes, MEP, answered the Kurd’s false claims that no Kurds had been invited as speakers at the Conference, saying that she had sent out invitations but that no Kurdish representative had shown their willingness or accepted to attend.
On hearing this, the Kurdish agent provocateur left the conference.
Second intervention:
Later during the conference Dr. Hassan Aydinli took the floor to react to MEP, Ms. Ana Gomes’ speech, during which she said that the ‘pragmatist Kurds had recently declared in Dubai that they were willing to compromise and to share power in Kerkuk’ .
Dr. Aydinli said that when KRG Prime Minister, Mr. Nechirvan Barzani, made this statement he was addressing Arab media in Dubai, and that what he had declared is quote “that Kurds were willing to share power with Arabs in Kerkuk” unquote, he deliberately omitted to mention the Turkmens who are the original inhabitants of Kerkuk, the main components of the city and the first to be concerned by the issue of Kerkuk and the future of this city. Dr Aydinli added that the Turkmens who represent 12% of the Iraqi population are Iraq’s third main community, and the second main community in the north of Iraq where they represent over 30% of the population.
He further said that Kurds tend to consider the entire north of Iraq as ‘Kurdistan’ and that they want to divide Iraq in two regions: Kurds and Arabs, thereby denying the right of the Turkmens to be recognized as the third main community in Iraq by considering them as a ‘minority’.
Dr Aydinli pointed out that in the draft of the “Kurdish Region Constitution” Kurds have included Turkmen cities and towns in the Kurdish region and they consider Turkmens, Arabs and Keldo-Assyrians as ‘minorities’ living in ‘Kurdistan’. Furthermore, these so-called ‘minorities’ have no right to have their own region or autonomy within Kurdistan (Articles 2, 3 and 6).
Dr Aydinli said that Turkmens are a stabilizing factor for the unity of Iraq and that the denial to recognize the Turkmens’ rights would be a destabilizing factor.
Referring to democracy and fairness he gave the example of the Federal system in Belgium where there are three communities: the Flemish, the Walloons and the German-speaking Belgians, emphasizing that the latter who are the smallest group, with their 72.000 people, have their own region and government in Belgium’s federal system, although they represent less than 1% of the Belgian population, while the 3 million Turkmens in Iraq are being denied the right to have their rights and their own region.
Dr. Aydinli continued on the subject of the marginalization of the Turkmens in today’s Iraq despite the false claims of democracy, by giving the example of the German speaking Belgians, who with their 72.000 people, represent Belgium’s third community. He said that this small group of German speaking Belgians had exactly the same rights as the two main communities in Belgium, the Flemish and the Walloons. Adding that unfortunately Iraq’s 3 million Turkmens are still suffering from discrimination and marginalisation in today’s Iraq.
He further complained about the process of normalization and about the Iraqi Property Claims Commission (IPCC) which to-date has not done anything to compensate the Turkmens for the loss of their properties and lands under the former regime, he said that 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
Notes taken by Merry Fitzgerald
Assistant of ITF Europe Representative
He further said that Kurds tend to consider the entire north of Iraq as ‘Kurdistan’ and that they want to divide Iraq in two regions: Kurds and Arabs, thereby denying the right of the Turkmens to be recognized as the third main community in Iraq by considering them as a ‘minority’.
Dr Aydinli pointed out that in the draft of the “Kurdish Region Constitution” Kurds have included Turkmen cities and towns in the Kurdish region and they consider Turkmens, Arabs and Keldo-Assyrians as ‘minorities’ living in ‘Kurdistan’. Furthermore, these so-called ‘minorities’ have no right to have their own region or autonomy within Kurdistan (Articles 2, 3 and 6).
Dr Aydinli said that Turkmens are a stabilizing factor for the unity of Iraq and that the denial to recognize the Turkmens’ rights would be a destabilizing factor.
Referring to democracy and fairness he gave the example of the Federal system in Belgium where there are three communities: the Flemish, the Walloons and the German-speaking Belgians, emphasizing that the latter who are the smallest group, with their 72.000 people, have their own region and government in Belgium’s federal system, although they represent less than 1% of the Belgian population, while the 3 million Turkmens in Iraq are being denied the right to have their rights and their own region.
Dr. Aydinli continued on the subject of the marginalization of the Turkmens in today’s Iraq despite the false claims of democracy, by giving the example of the German speaking Belgians, who with their 72.000 people, represent Belgium’s third community. He said that this small group of German speaking Belgians had exactly the same rights as the two main communities in Belgium, the Flemish and the Walloons. Adding that unfortunately Iraq’s 3 million Turkmens are still suffering from discrimination and marginalisation in today’s Iraq.
He further complained about the process of normalization and about the Iraqi Property Claims Commission (IPCC) which to-date has not done anything to compensate the Turkmens for the loss of their properties and lands under the former regime, he said that 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
Notes taken by Merry Fitzgerald
Assistant of ITF Europe Representative
mercredi 25 juin 2008
Iraqi Kurds sign deals with Talisman as oil meetings restart in Baghdad
By BEN LANDO, UPI Energy Editor
Published: June 23, 2008
Iraq's Kurdish government has signed two oil deals with Canada's Talisman Energy as meetings begin in Baghdad over controversial oil issues.
Calgary-based Talisman now has a 40 percent interest in the project operated by WesternZagros, the subsidiary spun off from Marathon.
The production sharing contracts the Kurdistan Regional Government has signed with dozens of international oil firms allow the government to designate a "third party interest" in the project. WesternZagros maintains 40 percent and the KRG 20 percent interest.
Talisman also has signed a two-year service agreement to conduct seismic testing of exploration block K39, with an option to sign a production sharing contract.
The KRG has signed contracts with more than 20 international oil companies as part of its push to explore and develop its prospective oil sector. The northern region was largely neglected by Saddam Hussein, but the KRG deals have resulted in about 10,000 barrels per day of oil production currently.
The moves, however, are considered unilateral and illegal by the Iraqi oil minister and others in the federal government, adding to the disputes between the two governments. Iraq's Oil Ministry claims sole right to sign oil deals, says all but the four earliest KRG deals are illegitimate, and threatens to confiscate any oil produced. It's already blacklisted companies that signed with the KRG from bidding on future oil development deals in the rest of Iraq.
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is leading a delegation to Baghdad now, meeting with a federal government team led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The agenda includes the draft national oil law, which has been sidelined by disputes over control of the Iraqi oil development strategy.
The KRG contends provinces or regions with oil reserves have the right to decide development, but wide opposition favors maintaining central government control.
"The aim is to push for the creation of a hydrocarbon law which includes an efficient free-market approach, enhancing the private sector, encouraging foreign investment, and securing transparency as its main principles," Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of KRG foreign relations, said in a statement.
There are still disputes as to how much, if at all, to reverse the nationalization of Iraq's oil sector and what role the international oil industry will be allowed to play. Iraq has increased oil production to 2.5 million barrels per day, a half million more than the post-2003 average, and has sent more than 2 million bpd to the global market, according to May averages. Iraq's oil unions, along with a cross-section of Iraqi civil and political society, are urging reinvestment in the once prominent domestic oil sector. Sanctions, Saddam Hussein's misuse and decades of war wore down the Iraqi oil establishment.
The Baghdad talks also will include funding for the Peshmerga, the KRG security forces, and the future of disputed territories, which include oil-rich Kirkuk. The central government also accuses the KRG of signing production sharing contracts that extend into the disputed territories.
Talisman said it will spend $80 million on the WesternZagros project for past costs and a commitment for three wells in the future. It also estimates $10 million to $15 million to explore the K39 block. The production sharing contract option would give it a 60 percent interest.
The company will also pay $220 million in what the KRG is calling "corporate social responsibility." Its investment is aimed at the communities where the oil work is to be carried out. The KRG typically has been mum on details of the so-called signing bonuses and other extra payments. It says it will detail all of the extra payments from its oil deals in coming months.
--
(e-mail: blando@upi.com)
Published: June 23, 2008
Iraq's Kurdish government has signed two oil deals with Canada's Talisman Energy as meetings begin in Baghdad over controversial oil issues.
Calgary-based Talisman now has a 40 percent interest in the project operated by WesternZagros, the subsidiary spun off from Marathon.
The production sharing contracts the Kurdistan Regional Government has signed with dozens of international oil firms allow the government to designate a "third party interest" in the project. WesternZagros maintains 40 percent and the KRG 20 percent interest.
Talisman also has signed a two-year service agreement to conduct seismic testing of exploration block K39, with an option to sign a production sharing contract.
The KRG has signed contracts with more than 20 international oil companies as part of its push to explore and develop its prospective oil sector. The northern region was largely neglected by Saddam Hussein, but the KRG deals have resulted in about 10,000 barrels per day of oil production currently.
The moves, however, are considered unilateral and illegal by the Iraqi oil minister and others in the federal government, adding to the disputes between the two governments. Iraq's Oil Ministry claims sole right to sign oil deals, says all but the four earliest KRG deals are illegitimate, and threatens to confiscate any oil produced. It's already blacklisted companies that signed with the KRG from bidding on future oil development deals in the rest of Iraq.
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is leading a delegation to Baghdad now, meeting with a federal government team led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The agenda includes the draft national oil law, which has been sidelined by disputes over control of the Iraqi oil development strategy.
The KRG contends provinces or regions with oil reserves have the right to decide development, but wide opposition favors maintaining central government control.
"The aim is to push for the creation of a hydrocarbon law which includes an efficient free-market approach, enhancing the private sector, encouraging foreign investment, and securing transparency as its main principles," Falah Mustafa Bakir, head of KRG foreign relations, said in a statement.
There are still disputes as to how much, if at all, to reverse the nationalization of Iraq's oil sector and what role the international oil industry will be allowed to play. Iraq has increased oil production to 2.5 million barrels per day, a half million more than the post-2003 average, and has sent more than 2 million bpd to the global market, according to May averages. Iraq's oil unions, along with a cross-section of Iraqi civil and political society, are urging reinvestment in the once prominent domestic oil sector. Sanctions, Saddam Hussein's misuse and decades of war wore down the Iraqi oil establishment.
The Baghdad talks also will include funding for the Peshmerga, the KRG security forces, and the future of disputed territories, which include oil-rich Kirkuk. The central government also accuses the KRG of signing production sharing contracts that extend into the disputed territories.
Talisman said it will spend $80 million on the WesternZagros project for past costs and a commitment for three wells in the future. It also estimates $10 million to $15 million to explore the K39 block. The production sharing contract option would give it a 60 percent interest.
The company will also pay $220 million in what the KRG is calling "corporate social responsibility." Its investment is aimed at the communities where the oil work is to be carried out. The KRG typically has been mum on details of the so-called signing bonuses and other extra payments. It says it will detail all of the extra payments from its oil deals in coming months.
--
(e-mail: blando@upi.com)
KERKUK CONFERENCE AT THE EU PARLIAMENT IN BRUSSELS
Ana Gomes, MEP
تفاصيل مؤتمر كركوك في البرلمان الاوروبي
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