A NEW ARTICLE ON KERKUK

Kirkuk issue being pushed into impasse
Ilnur Cevik

ilnurcevik@yahoo.com
05 February 2007

The provocations continue in Kirkuk and it is time the Turkish government as well as the Turkish public started reading the real picture about this Iraqi province instead of being misled by disinformation.

It was Saddam Hussein who unleashed his atrocities against the Turkmen and Kurdish people of the province. He pushed these people out of the province and with his Arabization campaign he started ethnic cleansing in a shocking magnitude while the world remained silent.

Those who are screaming about rights of their Turkmen brothers in Kirkuk today remained silent at the time as Saddam's forces tortured and killed Turkmens as well as Kurds. No one talked about red lines or even raised this issue with Baghdad. So much so that at one point Iraqi Vice Premier Taha Yasin Ramadan declared there are no Turkmens in Kirkuk and no one raised any objections in Ankara.

When Saddam Hussein was toppled Turkey sent aid to the Turkmens of Kirkuk and tried to organize a political movement through the Turkmen Front which was a mistake. The Front split the Turkmens and created deep divisions among them. It is sad that the Kurds were given an opportunity to exploit these divisions.

So while the Kurds worked hard to bring back the displaced Kurds who were forced to leave Kirkuk by Saddam, Turkmens were left on their own and could not perform like the Kurds in returning to their homes.

But we have to point out that the Kurds have been a majority in Kirkuk while the Turkmens have always been a very select minority who deserve equal rights with the Kurds.

The Kurds want Kirkuk to be a province within their Kurdistan Region of Iraq and hope that a referendum scheduled by the end of 2007 will secure this. We also see very clearly that such a referendum will give the province to the Kurds but we also see that given the current conditions it will be practically impossible to secure meaningful balloting as the security situation deteriorates in Kirkuk.

What is funny is that the Kurds are being blamed for this deterioration which is really nonsense.

Why should the Kurds cerate problems when they can just sit and wait for the referendum that will go their way?

Some Turkmens have been accusing the Kurds of attacking them and Turkmens concerns in Kirkuk. They say all the attacks are always against Turkmens and call for Turkish intervention to stop this. We feel these Turkmens are seriously misleading the Turkish public and are creating enmities against Kurds that may one day backfire against them.

On Saturday nine bombs went off in Kirkuk killing four people and injuring dozens. They were in Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab neighborhoods.

It is clear that sinister hands are at work trying to turn Kirkuk into a city of violence like Mosul and Baghdad. Turkey and the Iraqi Kurdish leaders should cooperate to foil this plot. But sadly we see there is no dialogue between the Iraqi Kurdish leaders and Ankara let alone cooperation. For the sake fo the safety fo our Turkmen brothers and sisters in Kirkuk this dialogue should be secured.