Reports & Opinions 
The Sum of All Fears  

Kurdistan Observer
May 30, 2002

It is surprising how naive and irresponsible a Kurdish politician can be in making such outrageous statements like the one Mr. Barham Salih, the prime minister of the self declared regional government of the region of Suleimany in Iraqi Kurdistan, to the British daily telegraph  in the issue of 24.5.02 , where he was quoted saying " we cannot say Kirkuk is a Kurdish city, Arabs, Turcomans and Assyrians have lived there for centuries too" !!!!.

I hope sincerely that Mr. Barham Salih will come out and protest against this newspaper that he was misquoted, because it is otherwise the most degrading and insulting statement any Kurdish politician have ever made.

Dear Mr. Salih, you and your Boss can bargain and auction anything you like but not the historical and demographic facts of the city of Kirkuk, Kirkuk has been a Kurdish city for thousands of years and this fact is not debated by any respectful historian, the fact that some other national minorities like Arabs , Assyrians , Armenians and turcomans lived and still live in Kirkuk does not change the kurdishness of Kirkuk. As you know and (probably deliberately ignore that, to please Turkish generals) that the demographic nature of Kirkuk still shows a majority of Kurds in the City in spire of the ugly campaign of Arabization and ethnic cleansing of Kirkuk since the take off of power by  the ultra nationalistic Ba`ath party in Iraq in 1963 and later again in 1968 and till now. The fact of 
the peaceful coexistence of the different ethnic groups in Kirkuk before beginning of the ongoing disgusting baath campaign to change the Kurdish face of Kirkuk , does not change the reality that Kirkuk is  still,  as it was always been geographically, historically and demographically a Kurdish city with other ethnic minorities living peacefully with them.

Mr. .Barham Salih,  I hope sincerely that you and other Kurdish politicians similar to yourself aquatint themselves with these facts that are known to every honest Kurd regardless of his educational status or his political loyally and stop auctioning the Kurdish homeland to appease the foes of Kurds. You have already given up the right of self determination and the right to have an independent Kurdistan, you have destroyed the only real democratic experiment of the people of Kurdistan  ( elections 1992 and fratricide 1994), what else  is on sale now to satisfy your personal ambitions?

If you honestly believe in democracy and transparency then you should have the courage and gut to speak out and explain your statements to Kurdish people in Kurdistan and specially to the tens of thousands of Kurds deported from Kirkuk and dispossessed only because they did not bargain on the Kurdishness of Kirkuk like you did!! All of Kurds are waiting for you to speak out and elaborate on your statements.

Dr.N.Hawramany
Basel/Switzerland