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The letter of the Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research Foundation to the members of the European parliament on Mr. Barzani’s speech which he made during the debate in the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee on 8th May 2007 at 3.00pm. |
S O İ T M Iraqi Turkmen Human Rights Research foundation
Date: May 11, 2007 No.: Rep.22-E1107 |
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Mr. Jacek SARYUSZ-WOLSKI, Chairman of the Committee of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Giorgios Dimitrakopoulos, Iraqi Reporter of the European parliament, The members of the Committee of Foreign Affairs at the European Parliament,
Mr. Chairman, The Honourable Members of the European Parliament,
Like any other Kurdish politicians, Mr. Barzani alleged the presence of relatively peaceful situation in Northern Iraq and invited the European Parliament to participate in building of the so-called Iraqi Kurdistan. He linked this claim to a so called institutional democracy. This intention of Mr. Barzani aims to strengthen the new trend in the European policy to support Iraq through the Kurdish region, which leads to negligence of the main Iraqi regions, like Baghdad, Kerkuk … etc. This will enhance the disruptive and aggressive policies of Mr. Barzani, which facilitate disintegration of the Iraqi state and expose other Iraqi communities, Turkmen, Assyrians etc.... to further suppression and does reinforce his uncooperative approach to solve Kerkuk crisis, which will surely lead to another ethnical war in the north of Iraq.
Barzani’s applied aggressive policies and the severe violations to the Human rights in Kurdish regions are well known to everybody and has been announced in the latest two-monthly reports (1 January – 31 March 2007 and 1 November - 31 December 2006) of United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.
Mr. Barzani pointed out as only the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) does object the implication of the article 140. This is untrue as all the Turkmen political institutions are against the article 140 in this stage. Further more, the ITF is the ever largest Turkmen political fraction of Turkmen political system in Iraq and the ITF was the only Turkmen political organization which participated in the Iraqi general elections, while the poppet Turkmen parties which were established by Barzani and Talabani remain the only those who are supporting the Kurdish opinions.
Mr. Barzani replied to a question of the parliamentarians about the demographic changes in Kerkuk region saying that the Kurdish influx into Kerkuk region is exaggerated. The following official figures show the extent of Kurdification of Kerkuk region: Population of Kerkuk region according to the ration cards on the day of occupation was 870,000, while now is estimated to be 1,250,000. The number of Arab residents who had left Kerkuk to their original cities in the south is about 100,000, which confirms the mathematical increase in the population of Kerkuk to almost 500,000.
Mr. Barzani answered Mr. Wiersma, when the latter asked “how you guarantee a fair election”, “Every one can vote” he answered. The following statistics show the size of manipulation during the 15 December 2005 which were conducted under their own administration system; governmental offices, police, security and military forces are greatly Kurdified in Kerkuk region:
According to the ration cards the number of population of Kerkuk at the day (15th December election) was about 1,100,000. According to UNISCO the percentage of the Iraqis who are 18 years and above is 52%. Then the number of voters should have been 572,000. The number of the Kerkuk voters was presented by the Kurdified Kerkuk administration to the High Iraqi Electoral Commission was 800,000. This means that at least 228,000 votes were false. One would raise a doubt as “How can the upcoming referendum be fair?
Mr. Barzani mentioned that the number of the Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs who were expelled from Kerkuk during the Ba’ath period was 250,000. The pre-occupation Kurdish data, the United States special committee for refuges and the Human Rights Watch put the number between 120,000 – 140,000.
As an answer to the parliamentarians, who showed their concern about the upcoming fighting in Kerkuk, Mr. Barzani continued humiliating the Turkmen by assuring them “that there will be no fighting as the ITF is un-armed. He unfairly accused the ITF as the creator of the animosity. By his obstinate Kerkuk policy and his hostile declarations in the international media, Mr. Barzani is the main designer of the animosity and creator of the hatred between the components of the Iraqi community and particularly, between the inhabitants of Kerkuk.
“A dubious legitimacy of the article 140 and the Iraqi constitution is approved by 80% of the Iraqi community” as alleged is the only policy of the Kurdish politician, which was repeated by Mr. Barzani, to solve the Kerkuk problem. The Iraqi constitution has been disputed by a large numbers of the international authorities and is written under the hegemony of the USA and the Kurdish parties, while the only goal of the Shiite groups was to institute a federation for themselves in the South.
Despite Mr. Barzani’s emphasis in his speech to the members of the European parliament that he supports the unitary Iraq, his approach to the Kirkuk crisis, oil law, his refusal of the Iraqi Flag, his attitudes toward the Iraqi government and his speeches to the international media are disputed and do convey an absolute contrary.
We would ask Mr. Barzani the following questions:
- Hundreds of thousands of Kurds which were introduced into Kerkuk region for Kurdification are not returned to their regions. - Only 5,000 complaint cases, almost 90% were presented by Turkmen, of 36,000 were completed by Property Claim Commission. - The Kurds are still dominating the administration despite they are being the minority.
The speech and the claims of Mr. Barzani should never be approved before the European Parliament’s Foreign affairs Committee hears the Turkmen leaders.
SOITM Foundation |
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