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The struggle over Kirkuk, where Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens, Christians
and other groups have all staked claims, has been among the central
obstacles to unifying Iraq. Government officials in the Kurdish
region in the north insist that Kirkuk rightfully belongs to them.
Sunni Arab and Turkmen lawmakers have proposed a power-sharing
agreement to govern the city.
Under the new bill, passed unanimously by the 190 members of
Parliament present, a committee made up of representatives from the
major groups involved in the Kirkuk dispute will take up the question
and present recommendations by March 31. The election in Kirkuk is to
be postponed, and the current provincial council would remain in
place until a separate election law for the province could be passed.
Elections in the three provinces of the Kurdish region, an autonomous
territory, will be held in 2009.
Sa’adaldin Arkij, head of the Turkmen Front political party, called
the passage of the election law “a historical victory for Iraqis.”
“Today there was no winner and no loser, but Iraq won” he said.
“Kirkuk is not an easy issue, and the agreement is a confirmation of
Iraqis’ awareness and responsibility for unity in their country.”
The new law eliminates an article that, in an earlier version, had
provided 13 seats in six provinces for Iraqi Christians, Yazidis and
other minorities — a move that Younadim Kanna, head of the Assyrian
Democratic Movement and the only Christian member of Parliament said
was “a very, very bad sign.”
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