ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey's military warned Wednesday that the migration of large
numbers of Kurds into the oil rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk could sway the results
of the upcoming elections and possibly lead to clashes that could draw Ankara
into the dispute.
Kirkuk, a multiethnic city with a Kurdish,
ethnic Turkish populations, Arab, Christian - but Kurds have been the strongest
group in the city since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Kirkuk is also home to 12
percent of Iraq's oil reserves, and Turkey said the resources must be shared
equally by all Iraqis.
Turkey has repeatedly warned that Kurdish
control of the city would make an independent Kurdish state more viable, a
development that Ankara has repeatedly said it won't accept. Turkey fears that a
strong Kurdish entity in northern Iraq could inspire Kurds in Turkey, where
Kurdish rebels have battled the Turkish army since 1984.
"Hundreds of thousands of Kurds migrated to
Kirkuk and registered to vote," Gen. Ilker Basbug, deputy head of the Turkish
military, said at a news conference. "This could make the results of the
elections questionable."
"Even worse," he added, "these developments
could threaten the territorial and political unity of Iraq. We're worried that
such a development would pose an important security problem for Turkey."
Basbug stressed that a dispute of election
results could lead to clashes. Sunni Arab and ethnic Turkish parties are still
deciding whether to contest the Jan. 30 balloting in Kirkuk.
"This could lead to an independent Kurdish
state," Basbug said. "There could be clashes, these clashes could trigger an
internal war in Iraq."
Basbug said that according to the Iraqi Trade
Ministry, some 350,000 Kurds have moved to Kirkuk, but he added that the figure
could not be confirmed.
A U.S. military officer in northern Iraq, Col.
Lloyd Miles, said that some 30,000 displaced people - the vast majority of them
Kurdish - have returned to the province. Many Kurds were forced to leave their
homes under the rule of Saddam Hussein.
