BAGHDAD (CIHAN) - Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allavi said on Friday that Turkmens were an important ethnic component of Iraq.
Allavi told Cihan News Agency on Friday that several Turkmen officials had been appointed to important posts in the new Iraqi Government. The Iraqi Prime Minister said that the issue was an internal Iraqi issue before it concerned the Turkish Republic.
Iraqi Prime Minister Allavi said that Iraqi Kurdish leaders did not prefer independence but rather a federal administration. "A federal structure in North Iraq should not be confused with independence," Allawi said.
Allavi said that his government would not allow the disintegration of Iraq. "A federal structure in the north is possible but the Iraqi people will decide on it," he stated.
The US-backed Iraqi Prime Minister said that the abolition of militia forces in Iraq also included the Kurdish peshmergas. " The decision includes all militia forces. Some of the Kurdish peshmergas will be recruited to the Iraqi army while some of them will be added to Iraqi police force. Allavi added that the remaining ones would lay down their arms and begin civilian life or would be retired."
The Iraqi Prime Minister added that special status would be given to the Northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk due to its demographic structure.