Archive for July, 2009
Mahmur camp’s future unclear
The 12,000 Turkish citizens who live in the U.N.-supervised Mahmur camps in northern Iraq will only return back to Turkey if the Kurdish problem is resolved, one local official said.
The refugees crossed over to Iraq in 1994 from the southeastern provinces of Şırnak and Hakkari during the heaviest clashes between the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the military.
Turkey’s efforts to resolve the Kurdish issue had local repercussions, said one local official who wanted to remain anonymous, adding that the only viable way for the refugees to return to their homes was the resolution of the Kurdish problem. Read the rest of this entry »
Iraqi Kurd leader vows no ’compromise’ on oil city
The leader of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region, Massud Barzani, said he would not “compromise” on long-standing Kurdish claims to the oil-rich province of Kirkuk in a speech late Sunday.
“We are committed to the application of Article 140 [of the Iraqi constitution] and we promise that we will absolutely not compromise on this issue or on the rights of the people of Kurdistan,” Barzani said at a campaign rally ahead of Kurdish regional elections on Saturday.
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum to decide the fate of Kirkuk, which the Kurds have long wanted to make the capital of their autonomous region in the north, an aim strongly opposed by the province’s Arab and Turkmen communities. Read the rest of this entry »
Martyr Week of Iraqi-Turkmen
Fiftieth Anniversary of the 1959 Kirkuk Massacre
14 July 2009, this day marks the 50th year anniversary of the largest massacre of Iraqi-Turkmen in Kirkuk, Iraq to date.
Every year on July 14th, this massacre and the Turkmen martyrs are remembered with respect and gratitude.
No other people in history have suffered massacres in almost every one of their cities. Likewise, there is no other nation in history which on a year by year count has seen such systematic massacres. No other nation has ever been exposed to this kind of genocide and forced assimilation. The only “crime” of the Turkmen people, remnants of the Ottoman Empire, living in a geography that is the extension of Turkey, is to be of Turkish origin. Read the rest of this entry »