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Today I heard an interview of an Iraqi woman, now a Dutch citizen, who had left Kirkuk 12 years ago. She was shocked beyond disbelief what she found in Kirkuk, a city with complete lack of security and in near chaos.
Kurds, Turkmen, mostly Sunni Arabs and Christians have been the inhabitants of Kirkuk which sits on nearly 40 percent of Iraq’s proven oil fields.
During a forced Arabization campaign during Saddam’s rule, many Kurds and some Turkmen were forced out of Kirkuk and replaced by Sunni Arabs. But in a reverse exodus of more than 100,000 Kurds into the area, together with the departure of perhaps tens of thousands of Arabs, the region’s demographic structure has been heavily altered in favor of the Kurds since mid-2003.
This was part of a medium-term Kurdish plan to gain the area’s control, eventually to make Kirkuk the capital of a widely autonomous Kurdish region, and later, hopefully, an independent Kurdistan.
WASHINGTON D.C. August 20, 2006 – Earlier this month Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül once again warned that the planned referendum would not resolve the Kirkuk dispute and called for a political process to seek a consensus among all ethnic and sectarian groups.
But Turkey‘s latest call again found deaf ears, with the Kurds continuing to carry out their plans to consolidate their power and Washington retaining its aloof position.
“This is an issue for the Iraqi people to decide. There’s a process in the Iraqi Constitution that will allow them to do so,” U.S. State Department spokesman Tom Casey said on Aug. 11, referring to the planned referendum.
Meanwhile, Iraq’s Kurdish regional government this month published a draft version of a law giving itself the right to control petroleum operations in its territory and in the disputed province of Kirkuk. A memorandum attached to the draft provided by the Kurdish regional government said a final version would be presented to the Kurdish Parliament in September.
KIRKUK WAR LOOMING
If the United States continues with its stand-off position, the most likely outcome will be a civil war, said Joost Hiltermann, Iraq Project director for the International Crisis Group (ICG), said last week here. He said outside intervention also was likely.
State Department study “80% solution for Iraq” by Philip D Zelikow
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
