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Turkmens to work for Iraq-wide vote on status of Kirkuk(Turkish Daily News Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)The fate of Iraq's disputed city of Kirkuk should be determined in a vote across Iraq rather than in a referendum only in Kirkuk as planned now, simply because the referendum results would not be reliable, an Iraqi Turkmen official in Ankara said Iraq's interim constitution, which is expected to be approved by the country's first post-war permanent parliament in the coming months, foresees a referendum in Kirkuk on the final status of the city in 2007 Kurds claim a majority in Kirkuk and are pressing for inclusion of the city, which sits atop 6 percent of the world's known oil reserves, in the Kurdish autonomous region in the north. Turkmens and other residents of Kirkuk complain Kirkuk's demographic composition has been seriously distorted as a result of a massive Kurdish inflow from other parts of Iraq "Kirkuk is an Iraqi city, and all the people of Iraq should decide on its fate," said Ahmet Muratly, the representative in Ankara of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) Iraq's 275-seat parliament, which is still in process of emerging after the Dec. 15 elections, is authorized to make amendments to the interim constitution before formally approving it, and Turkmens hope one of the changes the parliament will make will be on articles that regulate the planned referendum on Kirkuk's status. Muratly said Turkmens were not the only group that says Kirkuk should be recognized as an Iraqi city and added that they would cooperate with all groups, most notably the Sunnis, who share the same policy in the new parliament. |