Kurdish Terrorists´ Dreams Predestined to Doom because of Kerkuk´s Turkmen Determination

In a series of articles I expanded on the Turkmen of Iraq and their strife against both, ´Kurdish´ terrorism and evil colonial plans for the Mesopotamian north that promote the rise of a false ´Kurdish´ state – curse for all the indigenous populations.

I published a key document "Kerkuk Problem and Article 140: Defining Alternatives - The Views of Kerkuk´s Turkmen and Arabs", which is a Conference Report submitted last June to the European Parliament by the Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation (SOITM) and he Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO). For reference, I mention here the last of the series: ´Kerkuk – Homeland for Mesopotamia´s Turkmen´ (http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79010).

I then published the entire text of the speeches given by Muzaffer Arslan, Advisor on Turkmen Affairs to the President of Iraq, in the aforementioned Conference (´Iraqi Turkmen Appeal to the European Union´ -

http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79535), Tahsin Kahya, Member of Kerkuk City Council ('Kerkuk Turkmen Took to the Streets Against Article 140 of the Permanent ´Constitution´ of Iraq' - http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79710), and Rakan Saeed, Member of Kerkuk City Council (Kerkuk Belongs to Turkmen, and Will Never Become "Kurdish" - http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/79776).

In this article, I publish the speech given by Ali Mehdi Sadeq, Member of Kerkuk City Council, who focused on the Kirkuk region project. In forthcoming articles, I will further publish speeches given in the aforementioned Conference as they illuminate diverse viewpoints and underscore different approaches to this critical issue for the colonial fabrication ´Iraq´ that cannot stand together.

Summary of Kirkuk Region Project

By Ali Mehdi Sadeq, Member of Kerkuk City Council

http://www.turkmen.nl/1A_soitm/kc-sadeqe2.htm

Kirkuk is considered one of the complex issues in Iraq since the day oil was discovered in the 1920's. The royal era has witnessed attempts to change the demographic nature of Kirkuk province, but these attempts were on a limited scale and did not cause a serious crisis at that time compared to Saddam's era. During Saddam's era, Kirkuk province underwent a compulsory change of its nature. Its name was changed to al-Ta'mim (nationalization) province and administrative parts of the province were detached and annexed to other provinces.

These attempts have rapidly developed in the 1980's and 1990' and took an ethnic cleansing nature against Turkmen, Kurds and Kelda-Assyrians. The authorities of the former regime have brought into the province thousands of Arab citizens to live in Kirkuk. At the same time, they have forced tens of thousands of Turkmen and Kurds to leave the city. Saddam's authorities have also enacted "the one direction change in national identity" law which allows non-Arabs to become Arabs and obliged may non-Arabs, a majority of Turkmen and Kurds, to change their national identity.

It is well known that Kurdish political parties and leadership, as of the day of the collapse of the former regime, have been trying endlessly to annex Kirkuk province to Kurdish regions, while Arabs and Turkmen strongly opposed such attempts which aims at making Kirkuk a Kurdish region. This has urged the interim governing council to find a solution but it failed to come up with such solutions within the needed time. Hence, basis for a viable solution were stated in articles 53 and 58 of the interim constitution (Law of Administration for the State of Iraq). In order to reactivate article 58, a special committee was formed for this purpose, but the decision was not activated.

It is worthwhile mentioning that the interim constitution has postponed the final settlement of conflict areas, Kirkuk being among them, until a permanent constitution is drafted. However, the final draft of the permanent constitution does not resolve the issue with regard to Kirkuk province because of the reservations of the Arabs and Turkmen regarding articles 136 and 138. These two articles were put under transitional provisions in the draft permanent constitutions when the interim constitution and its annexes was fully cancelled with the exception of paragraph (a) of articles (52) and (58). For this reason, Turkmen and Arabs in Kirkuk believe that the solutions provided for the province in the draft permanent constitution only respond to the aspirations of one certain ethnicity at the expense of others.

As we strongly support brotherly and smooth relations between the different ethnic components of Kirkuk, we believe that real and peaceful solutions should be reached to protect the rights of all ethnicities. These solutions should guarantee equality between the different components, and comply with democratic principles in building a new Iraqi state. They should prevent Iraqi people, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and Assyrians from entering into conflicts, clashes and wars which have already inflicted tens of thousands of victims and losses of billions of dollars as well as deterring the progress of Iraq. For all these reasons, we are submitting the following solutions regarding the administration of Kirkuk province under the title "Kirkuk region project".

Kirkuk region project

This project aims at the normalization of conditions in Kirkuk, organizing the relations between the different major ethnic components and involving them in the process of creating a joint administration for this province on basis of accordance and in-line with the following ideas:

Chapter 1: Basic principles

1. Kirkuk region is one of Iraq's regions

2. Kirkuk region is formed of Kirkuk province within its current administrative borders

3. Kirkuk region is a multi-ethnic region, and the people of the province are Turkmen, Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians.

4. The Turkmen, Arabic and Kurdish languages are official languages in Kirkuk region.

Chapter 2: The legislative authority (the parliament of Kirkuk region)

1. The parliament of Kirkuk region is formed of 100 members with the percentage of 32 seats for every ethnic group (Turkmen, Arabs, Kurds) and 4 seats for Assyrians. Parliament members shall be elected by means of direct secret-ballot elections. The spokesman of the parliament shall be from among the Arabs.

2. Any member who nominates himself to become a parliament member should be living in Kirkuk province.

3. The electoral law shall guarantee women representation. At least 25% of parliament members should be women.

4. A law shall be issued organizing conditions applicable to candidates as well as voters.

5. The formation of the council shall take into consideration just representation of ethnic groups in Kirkuk region.

Chapter 3: The executive authority

First: the presidential commission of Kirkuk region

1. The president of the presidential commission shall be from the Turkmen

2. The first deputy shall be Kurdish

3. The second deputy shall be Arab

Second: Kirkuk region's council of ministers

1. Kirkuk region council of ministers shall be the higher administrative and executive body in the region. It shall perform the tasks of the executive authority under the supervision of the Kirkuk region presidential council.

2. The council of ministers shall be formed of the council's president, his two deputies and a number of ministers not exceeding 13 ministers.

3. The prime minister shall be Kurdish and shall have 2 deputies one Arab and the other is Turkmen

4. Fair representation of ethnic groups shall be taken into consideration in the formation of the council of ministers in Kirkuk region.

Chapter 4: The judicial authority

1. The judicial authority of Kirkuk region shall be formed by accordance between the province's main components. The following shall be taken into consideration:

fair representation of ethnic components in the formation of the judiciary authority structure,

The judiciary of Kirkuk region shall be formed of the region's courts of different types and degrees.

2. The judiciary shall be independent from any authority

3. Non-Muslim groups shall have the right to form their own judicial councils according to a special law.

Chapter 5: Cultural affairs of Kirkuk region

In order to prevent interferences between ethnic components in the management of Kirkuk region cultural affairs, a special administration shall be formed for each ethnic group living in the province and shall be elected by people of the group. These administrations shall handle cultural issues and educational issues. The Turkmen as well as Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians, shall have their administrations in order to provide cultural services to each ethnic group. The size of these cultural services shall be complementary and in harmony with the services provided for each ethnic group within the national framework and to those provided by nearby regions.

Note

Picture: Union with Turkey is the natural aspiration of Northern Iraq´s persecuted Turkmen.

From: http://www.habervitrini.com/haber.asp?id=81411

Online editions of Prof. Dr. M. S. Megalommatis´ book on the "Turkish – Greek Relations and the Balkans" are available here:

http://community.webshots.com/user/turkeygreecemegalommatis (in Turkish) and http://community.webshots.com/user/greeceturkeymegalommatis (in Albanian)