ANKARA (AA) - In a letter sent to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul has stated that efforts to make demographic changes in Kirkuk are rapidly continuing.
Gul's letter, which became an official document of the UN General Assembly on January 20th, 2005, wrote that ''at a time when all of us are trying hard to help the common national agenda of Iraq to prevail over individual and sectarian ones, we see persistent efforts towards the contrary. Despite the fact that no major clashes of ethnic or sectarian nature occurred so far, the international community can not remain complacent to what we are witnessing now.
''In this respect, Kirkuk is a case in point. Attempts to drastically change the demographic structure of the city and the province of Kirkuk continue unabated. There are certainly claims and issues to be addressed in conjunction with property ownership and resettlement in Kirkuk, as well as in a number of other places,'' Gul said.
Gul indicated that the need to bring these matters to a satisfactory conclusion was also highlighted in the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), drawn up by the now defunct Iraqi Governing Council. However, what was suggested in that temporary document and what should naturally be the way is that these issues have to be settled collectively in Baghdad, in a national framework, and not through illegitimate unilateral transfer of sizable population to the disputed areas and by taking hold of these areas by sheer projection of force. The latest accounts about the number of new settlers in Kirkuk are alarming, and now estimated in hundreds of thousands.
Gul added that because of the election law applicable for 30 January, this population shift may not impact so much on the results of the balloting for the Transitional National Assembly as it would on the province-level voting. ''It is worrying that certain political groups have been tampering with demographics of Kirkuk, to claim supremacy of power through elections.'' Gul noted in his letter that an equally worrying tendency is an effort to turn the elections also into a referendum for independence in Northern Iraq. A campaign with outside involvement has been going on for sometime now, and most recently a group has also approached the UN to file a petition for such referendum. Gul further stated that there can be no charting of Iraq's future partially. ''If those who instigate such an outcome invest in the hope that Iraq may after all not be able to hold together under the current circumstances, they will be making a fatal error of judgement. I am confident that the Iraqi nation as a whole will not allow that to happen. And, given the recent history, the Iraqi issue is not an Iraqi one alone. It has impacted, impacts and will impact on the region. And, the region, as evidenced after two full years of Neighboring Countries Initiative, will stand firmly behind Iraq's integrity.''
Gul stressed in his letter that the results of January 30 elections may well be below expectations. ''When endorsing the current political timetable in Security Council resolution 1546, the objective of the international community had been, and still is, to transfer the sovereign authority to a transitory government conferred with popular mandate. In simple percentages, these elections can still deliver that. But qualitatively, there will likely be a gap, which will need to be bridged effectively later in the process. As the drafting of the new Iraqi constitution will get under way in the next phase, the participation of all Iraqis in this undertaking will become all the more important. Absence in the Transitional National Assembly should not result in exclusion from the drafting process. Turkey will work with the Iraqis, with the UN and with all players of the international community in helping forge a national reconciliation in Iraq up to the point where the transition is brought to its successful conclusion.'' Gul continued by writing that ''on the other hand, we will have to deal with equal resolve, with more immediate challenges that may stifle the entire project of territorially integral, politically united, democratic and peaceful Iraq. These challenges manifest themselves in different ways. We have all along focused, and rightly so, on the security threats and terror posed by myriad groups. Those who see no future for themselves in a peaceful and democratic Iraq must be confronted in the most determined fashion. But, defeating the physical threat alone cannot bring about the harmony we are all striving for. The inherent security for the Iraqi political and social fabric lies in the ability of all Iraqi groups to reconcile their own priorities and interests with those of Iraq as a whole. There is apparently more way to go on this account.''
(ES-MS)
2005-01-27