Türkiye pressed Iraqi electoral authorities in January 2005 to reject registration of Kurdish voters in Kirkuk who lacked legal standing to participate in the January 30 elections. The warning, reported in the Sabah daily, came days after Kurdish parties secured a deal with Baghdad allowing an estimated 100,000 Kurds expelled from the city under Saddam Hussein to cast ballots in Tamim province.
Ankara viewed the arrangement with deep concern. Kurdish political leaders sought to make Kirkuk the eventual capital of an autonomous or independent Kurdish region in northern Iraq, a prospect Türkiye strongly opposed. Senior diplomat Osman Koruturk, Türkiye's chief official on Iraq affairs, said Ankara accepted the return of Kurds who were genuinely uprooted but noted that additional Kurds had settled in the area since the US-led invasion. He called on the Independent Electoral Commission to limit participation to those who had actually resided in Kirkuk before displacement.
Iraqi authorities said prospective voters would need to document removal from the city after 1975, when Saddam's Arabization campaign began in earnest.
Kirkuk's large Turkmen community, which Ankara backs, also objected to the deal. The Iraqi Turkmen Front threatened to boycott the vote unless Kurdish parties abandoned what it described as efforts to skew the outcome in the city.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in January 2005, in its own words.