BBC Monitoring Middle East, 2007-08-20Text of report from Arbil by Bizhar Shwani entitled: "The Independent Turkoman Movement calls for the delay of Article 140, prefers protection of Kirkuk to be handed over to the Iraqi government, not to peshmerga"; published by Iraqi Pro-Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) weekly newspaper Chawder on 20 August
The chairman of the Independent Turkoman Movement, Kan'an Shakir, has told Chawder that they called for the postponement of [the implementation of constitutional] Article 140 for the normalization of Kirkuk. He added: "It would be better to hand over the mission of protecting Kirkuk to the Iraqi government, not to the peshmerga, because if Kirkuk is under the control of one side it would become uneven."
Shakir said that they had lodged a lawsuit against Kurdistan Region President Mas'ud Barzani over the events of August 1996. [In August 1996 the Kurdistan Democratic Party sought the help of Saddam Husain's army in order to take over the city of Arbil from the then rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan; Turkomans claim that many of them were captured by Iraqi forces during the event]
The aforementioned person said: "Democracy is not valued in Kurdistan Region, and the Turkomans' rights have been undermined in the interests of others."
He said that the Kurdish authorities have not supported Turkomans.
Originally published by Chawder, Sulaymaniyah, in Sorani Kurdish 20 Aug 07 p2.
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