Dec 10, 2005

The last decade of the 20th century was witness to many ups and downs for our country and its people. The Kurdish residents of Kirkuk have had embittered memories of last turbulent decades. Tens of thousands of our Kirkuki fellow citizens were uprooted from the land of their birth, with their population badly decimated, partly as a result of barbaric killings and Arabization by the Baathist thugs and foreign mercenaries. With its critical strategic position, historic and symbolic values to the Kurds, Kirkuk has been an upheaval of an exceptional magnitude. Despite of its top priority, a stable solution to Kirkuk dispute has still remained vague after the end of despotism and prolonged years of resistance against its occupation.

For the pains and misery the ex-dictator inflicted on the people of Kurdistan and especially the Kirkuki Kurds, no body had questioned the Iraqi regime.

Kirkuk has been one of the principal obstacles to finding a peaceful solution to the Kurdish identity in Iraq. Our leaders have laid great stress on the issue of Kirkuk that the Kurdish administration of Kurdistan (Northern Iraq) would acquire the control of the oil- rich Kurdish city of Kirkuk and the city will join Kurdistan. The United States has also taken a delicate stand on the status of Kirkuk. Efforts to remedy the unjust policies of the Saddam government in and around Kirkuk, which included the forced deportation of residents, confiscation of property and the manipulation of administrative boundaries, are internal issues for Iraqis to decide. Therefore, Kikuk is an internal dispute and its population on the dot should determine its destiny.

Kirkuk does not only involve a territorial struggle for the Kurds- it is about our entire national existence. Kirkuk is our Jerusalem and the starting point of our ancestors. If we have omitted our culture and identity then what good is our struggle for? We must make every effort to ensure that Kirkuk does not become a burial ground for our culture and identity- the only traces of which remaining underground for scientists to discover centuries for now.

In this diaspora, however, we have misplaced sight of one crucial facet, which gives us our distinct identity and that aspect is our ethnicity. We have been grieving over, day in and day out, at numerous conferences, seminars, symposia, and various other conclaves that we have lost our identity because of our having been uprooted from our homes and hearths and forced by circumstances to reside and eke out our livelihood in unfamiliar and inhospitable environs. As a matter of fact, no one can question the logic of this statement. But have we ever tried to introspect, even for a moment, as to the primary reason of our prevailing feeling of identity crisis, apart from the discriminatory treatment meted out to us at the hands of the Central and State Governments.

In attempting to promote conflict resolution in Iraq, it is important to pay increased attention to the interests of the indigenous populations and their cultures, instead of continuing to focus overwhelmingly on accommodating the interests of states. The official incorporation of Kirkuk into Southern Kurdistan by 2007 not only signifies a greater political or financial independence for the Kurds but also the reclamation of our disclaimed cultural legacy. Our struggle must incorporate a conscious and deliberate effort to promote and strengthen our cultural, linguistic, historical, and psychological ties to Kirkuk. Kirkuk is the heart of Kurdistan and its demography should be reversed indisputably. We must revive our patriotism...