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A Wrong Kurdish Wager In Kirkuk

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  • A Wrong Kurdish Wager In Kirkuk

    A WRONG KURDISH WAGER IN KIRKUK

    Mideast Mirror
    July 30, 2008 Wednesday

    The Kurds hard-line position on Kirkuk can only mean more trouble
    ahead, says today's Emirates' al-Bayan

    The Kurds insistence on rejecting the provincial elections law is
    motivated by their desire to annex the city of Kirkuk, claims a UAE
    daily. However, they need to remember that the city has historically
    been a melting pot for all of Iraq's constituent communities, and
    that this fact cannot be eliminated by a political decision.

    WIDE GAP: "The fate of the Iraqi city of Kirkuk has recently returned
    to the forefront of events, threatening to detonate a major crisis
    between Kurds, Arabs, and Turcoman, as well as other Iraqi groups
    living in the city," writes the editorial in Wednesday's UAE daily
    al-Bayan.

    The Iraqi Parliament's vote on the provincial elections law -
    boycotted by the Kurdish bloc, ratified by the MPs, and then rejected
    by [Kurdish] President Jalal Talabani - has exposed the extent of the
    gap that still separates the people of Iraq from a united vision of
    the country's future.

    Although Iraq has been living in a vortex of continuous violence
    since 2003, what has taken place in Kirkuk is extremely dangerous,
    given the city's rich ethnic and sectarian mix. This is a time bomb
    that could explode at any minute. Monday's events in which 27 people
    fell victim to a suicide attack amidst a Kurdish demonstration are
    no more than a prelude to this great explosion.

    The city has some one million inhabitants, a mixture of Turcoman,
    Kurds, and Arabs, with an Assyrian, Chaldean, and Armenian minority.

    The warnings issued by tens of international organizations regarding
    this oil-rich city have not prevented the situation from taking a turn
    for the worse. More is likely in the coming days. This is because of
    the Kurds' insistence on annexing the city to Kurdistan Province, which
    enjoys a broad degree of independence from the central government.

    The problem of Kirkuk cannot be viewed outside the context of Kurdish
    aspirations. Since 1991, these aspirations have centred on creating
    a political entity that enjoys maximum independence from the central
    government. A large part of these aspirations has been achieved since
    the fall of the former Iraqi regime in 2003.

    However, the current moment of weakness that Iraq is suffering from
    does not mean that it is in the Kurds' - or others'- interest to decide
    the fate of one of Mesopotamia's oldest cities, where the various
    ethnic and sectarian groups have mixed for over 5000 years. History
    cannot be struck out by a political decision.

    One would have supposed that the Kurds would be more aware of this
    historical fact than others. They are the one ethnic group that
    has suffered more than any other from attempts to disregard it as
    a result of the failure to recognize its identity when the region's
    maps were drawn.

    The current historical moment may be appropriate for violating the
    land of Mesopotamia at the hands of its own people, even before its
    enemies violate it. But historical reality must not be absent from
    anyone's mind.

    "It would be wrong for one of the Iraqi people's constituents to wager
    on a separate future away from the other constituents, especially
    given everyone's need for solidarity and unity behind the slogan of
    reconstructing and rebuilding the new Iraq," concludes the daily.
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