KIRKUK, Dec 3, 2007 (AFP) - Arab and Kurdish parties in oil city of Kirkuk have
clinched a deal under which Arabs will end their boycott of the provincial
council in return for a more equal sharing of power, an official said on Monday.
The "in principle" agreement was reached on Sunday, according to the chief of
the Kirkuk provincial council, Razgar Ali, a leader of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.
Ethnic Turkmen, however, have refused to join the agreement and will continue
boycotting the 41-member council.
Kirkuk has been gripped by ethnic tension since the US-led invasion of 2003,
with Kurds demanding that the city be incorporated into the autonomous Kurdish
region and Arab and ethnic Turkmen opposing this, saying they fear non-Kurdish
communities will be marginalised.
Under the weekend deal the six Arab members of the provincial council will end
their boycott, called more than a year ago in protest at what they said was the
"domination" of Kurdish parties in the multi-ethnic council.
The two major Kurdish parties, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP),
occupy 26 seats in the council while the Turkmen Front has the remaining nine.
"It is a positive step towards building Kirkuk and bolstering peaceful
co-existence in a partnership in which decisions will be made without
injustice," said Ali, calling at the same time on the Turkmen Front to join the
agreement.
An Arab member of the council, Rakan Saeed al-Juburi, called for speedy
implementation of the agreement.
"We will get, for the first time, the post of Kirkuk's deputy governor and the
deputy head of the judiciary council. Posts will be distributed equally -- 32
percent each for Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and the remaining four percent for the
Chaldo-Assyrian, Armenian and Sabiah minorities," Juburi said.
A Turkmen official declared that Kirkuk's problems "cannot be resolved by
compensating one side while marginalising another.
"We have demanded an end to the arrest and marginalisation of Turkmen and the
need to adopt the Turkmen language officially in Kirkuk, but there has been no
response," said Ali Mahdi, deputy leader of Turkmen Eli party.
Kirkuk's population is estimated to be one million, a mixture of Turkmen, Kurds
and Arabs with a Chaldo-Assyrian minority.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said at the end of a six-day Iraqi
visit on Sunday that there was no time left this year to hold a referendum,
which is required under article 140 of the Iraqi constitution.
"It is my understanding that an effort will be made in the new year to get a
process going forward that deals with article 140 of the constitution and the
issue of Kirkuk," he told reporters in Baghdad.
