Printer-friendly VersionThe Globe- Erbil
The first Turkmen conference kicked off in Erbil on Monday, February 11, with the goal of unifying the political voice within the Turkmen community.
Turkmen Democratic leader Karkhi Alti Barmak said the conference aims to unite the voice of all Turkmen political parties, as well as their culture and society, and seeks to discuss Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution.
"Kurds will never use weapons against Turkmen, but the Kurdish weapon will be used to protect Turkmen," said Barzani.
Barzani added that Turkmen and Kurds are brothers and both were oppressed and are people of one country.
Regarding the article, "Article 140 is a constitutional article; for the Iraqi people to live in peace, the article must be implemented. We want to create such as environment in which Arabs, Turkmen, and Kurds live together peacefully," said Barzani.
Irfan Kirkuki, Secretary-General of Turkmen People's Party, said an advisory committee will be set up to examine the Turkmen community's situation. He also asserted that the conference mainly aims to drum up support for the implementation of Article 140.
Kirkuki urged the Iraqi government and Parliament to back the supreme committee entrusted with its implementation in its task, which he said serves the interests of the country and the Turkmen people.
Some Turkmen parties met on February 2 in a workshop in Baghdad on the fate of Kirkuk, and agreed that Article 140 had legally expired. The meeting was attended by a number of Iraqi MPs and ministers, but Kurds did not attend the workshop.
"The Turkmen parties agreed to unify political and media discourse and that Article 140 has ended legally and constitutionally with the expiration of its deadline set in the Constitution," said Saad al-Din Arkij, president of the Iraqi Turkmen Front.
Arkij said an agreement was reached during the meeting to have Kirkuk as an independent province to be run by the groups in the city in a way to be agreed upon later.
Mahmud Osman, a prominent Kurdish lawmaker, said the Baghdad workshop came after a delegation of Turkmen in the Kirkuk provincial council recently visited Turkey and met with President Abdullah Gul. There they were told to attempt to make Kirkuk an independent region, and now they are trying to get Arab lobby to pursue the idea," said Osman.
The Turkmen Front, which is strongly against Article 140 or any attempts to merge Kirkuk city with Kurdistan Region, has several demands regarding Kirkuk. First, it proclaims that Article 140 ended legally and constitutionally with the expiration of its deadline set in the Constitution, and therefore Kirkuk province should become an independent region in Iraq and the administrational posts should be equally distributed among Turkmen, Arabs, and Kurds.