Constitutional Committee Discussed Postponing the Federation until after the Coming Elections

.....Within the same context, Abbas Al Bayati, representatives of the Turkmen in the Iraqi National Assembly (Parliament) said, "This week would witness the announcement for the readiness of the new constitution draft, after the return of the Arab Sunni members for powerful participation in the constitutional process."Al Bayati pointed out, "Our demands are specified in three fundamental matters. First, the Turkmen should be regarded as a basic nationalism in Iraq, or as a third nationalism. One of these two points should be stated in the constitution. The second issue is that in case the Arabic and Kurdish languages are approved as official languages, the Turkmani language should be considered as an official language in the regions of Turkmani majority, which extend from Tala'far to the city of Mandeli. As for the third issue, which is significant for us, it is relating to the city of Kirkuk, as according to Article 58 of the Iraqi state administration code, there is a road map. According to the rod map, deciding on the destiny of this city is the competence of its residents of Arabs, Turkmen, Kurds and Assyrians."Al Bayati noted that the city of Kirkuk "Can not be connected with any federation, against the will of its residents of various races. One of our demands is that Kirkuk becomes a separate state or region and is run by the residents of this city through understanding and mutual dialogue, so as to crystallize a form for administering this city. We have clarified these fundamental demands to the Arab Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish brothers, and informed them that these three demands are very crucial for the Turkmen."
Al Sharq Al Awsat