Archive for the ‘Kirkuk’ Category
Turkish president invites Kirkuk ethnic groups to gather in Ankara
Hurriyet
Turkish President Abdullah Gul has called on the representatives of Kirkuk’s ethnic groups to convene in Ankara, an Iraqi Shi’ite Turkmen MP from the United Iraqi Alliance said on Monday.
The fate of Kirkuk, an ancient city that was once part of the Ottoman Empire, is one of the most divisive issues in Iraq. Control over Kirkuk, a mixed city of Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen, and the surrounding oil wealth, is in dispute between the city’s three ethnic groups.
“The meeting of the representatives of the Iraqi components is related with their approval and willingness to discuss this sensitive issue on a round table with a Turkish readiness to offer the circumstances of succeeding the meeting,” Abbas al-Bayati told Baghdad-based al-Sabah newspaper. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkey wary over status of Kirkuk
Middle East Times
Turkey cautioned against moving too quickly on a referendum to settle the disputed status of the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, officials said.
Abbas al-Bayati, a Shiite Turkomen with the United Iraqi Alliance coalition, said Turkish President Abdullah Gul invited members from the ethnic community in Kirkuk to meet in Ankara to discuss the way forward on the disputed city, Turkey’s daily newspaper Hurriyet reported Monday.
Iraq holds provincial elections in 14 of the 18 provinces Jan. 31. The vote is delayed in the three Kurdish provinces and Kirkuk because of territorial disputes.
Ethnic Kurds, Sunnis and Turkomen disagree over whether Kirkuk should be considered part of greater Iraq or Iraqi Kurdistan. The vote in Kirkuk is postponed indefinitely. Read the rest of this entry »
Connecting people in Istanbul and Kirkuk overland
Hurriyet
As relations between Turkey and northern Iraq begin to heal, a bus company has started traveling between Istanbul and Kirkuk.
Although there are only a limited number of buses traveling, knowing there is way to travel is believed to have made people feel closer to one another, reported daily Zaman.
The buses carry Turkmen, Arab and Kurdish people who want to visit family, relatives and friends in Istanbul. The buses, owned by a company based in the southeastern city of Mardin, currently travel twice a week. Although the trip is long and difficult, it is as popular as flight tickets to Kirkuk from Istanbul, which cost around $500 while the bus trip costs $130. The reason that flight tickets are so expensive is that the flights have high insurance premiums because of Iraq’s security issues. Read the rest of this entry »
Kerkuk – Capital City of Turkmeneli (Iraqi Turkmenia) and the Pseudo-Kurdish Claims
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis, American Chronicle
A comprehensive diagram of the History of the Turkmen city of Kerkuk is presented in the new book about the Iraqi city, which has been elaborated by Mofak Salman Kerkuklu, one of Iraq´s foremost Turkmen scholars and intellectuals. I will publish the book in a series of articles; in this first part, I republish the various historical chapters of Mr. Mofak Salman Kerkuklu´s new contribution. In forthcoming articles, I will publish parts of the book that shed light on the recent atrocities committed there by the terrorist militias of the pseudo-Kurdish “leaders´ Talabani and Barzani. Read the rest of this entry »
Talabani, Gül set to visit Kirkuk
Hurriyet
President Abdullah Gül will visit the oil-rich northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk on Dec. 20, together with his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, a trip that comes after the terrorist attack that claimed the lives of at least 55 people.
The announcement made by Talabani came Friday during his meeting with Iraqi Turkmen representatives in Kirkuk. Turkey’s Gül denounced the terrorist attack and expressed unity with Iraqis in a message to the Iraqi leader. Gül’s trip to Iraq has been long-expected by Iraqis who want to boost ties with its northern neighbor. In his first official trip to Iraq, Gül will visit Baghdad and will have talks with prominent Iraqi politicians. The exact date of Gül’s visit to Iraq will become clear after his doctor has revealed the nature of an ear problem he has been suffering from.
A suicide bomber struck a crowded restaurant Thursday where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders to discuss long-standing ethnic tensions. The attack outside Kirkuk was the deadliest in Iraq in nearly six months. Read the rest of this entry »
Turkey feels uneasy on Talabani’s Kirkuk visit statement-report
Hurriyet
Ankara did not welcome the statement of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that he and Turkish President Abdullah Gul would travel to Kirkuk, Milliyet daily reported citing presidential office sources.
Talabani’s declaration was interpreted as efforts by the Iraqi party to include Kirkuk in Gul’s planned Baghdad visit, the report said.
According to reports on Friday, Talabani was reported as saying he and Gul were planning to visit Kirkuk together on Dec.20.
Turkish Presidential sources had earlier confirmed that a visit to Iraq was on the agenda, adding there was no clear date. However sources did not mention a possible visit to Kirkuk during Gul’s planned trip.
The announced visit may be postponed if Turkish President Abdullah Gul, who currently has an ear infection, is not cleared by doctors to fly, the newspaper also said. Read the rest of this entry »
Blast kills scores in northern Iraq
Hurriyet
A suicide bomber struck yesterday inside a popular restaurant in northern Iraq where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders, killing at least 55 people and wounding about 120, police said.
Women and children were among the victims of the attack on the “Abdullah” restaurant, which is located on the main road to Irbil and is popular with Kurdish officials traveling to and from the Kurdish self-ruled region.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, who gave the casualty figures, told The Associated Press that the blast occurred in the Abdullah Restaurant just north of the contested oil city of Kirkuk. A Kurdish official said Arab tribal leaders were having lunch with members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of President Jalal Talabani. Read the rest of this entry »
Presidents of Turkey and Iraq to visit Kirkuk on Dec 20
Hurriyet
Turkish President Abdullah Gul will visit Kirkuk together with with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Dec. 20, broadcaster NTV reported on Friday.
Presidential sources had earlier confirmed the visit was on the agenda, but had not given a clear date.
Talabani, himself a Kurd, reiterated his invitation to the Turkish president during their meeting in New York on the sidelines of a session of the U.N. General Assembly in September.
Turkey has intensified its direct contacts with both Iraqi central government and the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq to discuss the possible measures that can be taken in the fight against the terror organization PKK.
Turkey, who has also stepped up its campaign to crackdown on the PKK, has long blamed the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq for supporting the PKK and refused to hold contacts.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul sent a message of condolence to Talabani Friday harshly condemning Thursday’s suicide attack conducted on a crowded Kurdish restaurant in Kirkuk that killed 55 and injured 93 others.
Source: arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=10556136
Turkey harshly condemns suicide attack in Kirkuk
Hurriyet
Turkey has condemned Thursday’s suicide bomb attack which was staged in a crowded restaurant in the city of Kirkuk in Iraq, the Anatolian Agency reported on Friday.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry released a statement Thursday harshly condemning the “villainous attack” that killed 55 and injured 93 others.
The ministry stated that Turkey was saddened by the attack staged in Kirkuk –the symbol of Iraq’s ethnical richness and of Iraqi people’s desire to live in peace together — offered its condolences to the families of the victims who were killed by the suicide blast.
The ministry also said that Turkey was ready to provide every assistance to friendly Iraq to overcome this critical period in peace and security. Read the rest of this entry »
Suicide bomber kills at least 45, wounds 93 in Iraq
Hurriyet
A suicide bomber killed at least 45 people and wounded 93 on Thursday in an explosion just north of Iraq’s ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, shattering the calm during a major Muslim holiday, AFP reported police as saying.
The bomber detonated explosives inside a Kurdish restaurant about 10 km (6 miles) north of Kirkuk, said Major General Jamal Tahir, police chief of Kirkuk.
Tahir said the restaurant was packed during lunch hour. Many Iraqis are on holiday during Eid al-Adha, a four-day religious holiday, and would be more likely to visit restaurants.
Iraqi and American security forces sealed off the area following the bombing, a Reuters reporter said.
Violence has dropped sharply in Iraq over the past year, but militants still stage attacks on a routine basis. Thursday’s bomb attack was the deadliest in months. Read the rest of this entry »