Fmr Turkish PM suggests implementation of Article 140 to resolve Kirkuk impasse

“The Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which envisages a referendum in Kirkuk, should be implemented not as a unilateral imposition but as a referendum on a proposal reached between the parties,” reads a proposal by Ahmet Davutoglu.

Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution calls for normalization of areas it refers to as disputed, to be followed by a referendum on whether or not those regions want to be part of the Kurdistan Region.
 
According to the constitution, the article should have been implemented by the end of 2007, and so far no referendum has been conducted regarding this issue.

Davutoglu in his project suggests that “all outcomes of the September 25 referendum, including the status of Kirkuk in this framework, should be frozen to allow negotiations.”

Davutoglu rejects “unilateral acts” by the Kurdistan Region in Kirkuk on one hand, and “military movements around the city” by Baghdad on the other as means to resolve the Kirkuk dispute. 

Davutoglu believes that “today's political realities require a special arrangement of this city for a permanent settlement. This special arrangement can be achieved through a separate status for Kirkuk within the territorial integrity of Iraq.”

The former Turkish premier also suggested an equal participation of Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen in running the city’s affairs so as to avoid conflict as citing the late Iraqi President and former leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) Jalal Talabani in suggesting the same idea.

“In fact, in the context of the previous negotiations, the idea of ​​passing a special status on the basis of a [a local council] with equal representation of ethnic groups (33% Turkmen, 33% Kurdish and 33% Arab) was negotiated with the deceased Iraqi President Mr. Talabani. With these or similar formats, a local platform that can stop ethnic conflicts in the field should be established,” he said. 

He added that the negotiations to resolve the Kirkuk impasse have to be “under the auspices of the UN” and other Iraqi parties. 

“While these negotiations are underway, the pressure must be reduced, avoided from power use or power projection, and allowed for the creation of a rational negotiating environment,” he concluded. 

One of the major opposing parties against the Kurdistan referendum is Turkey as it has constantly been calling on the Kurdistan Region to cancel the vote and has threatened to close the border as part of its measures against the Region. 

In the wake of the independence referendum, Baghdad took a set of punitive measures against the Region, mainly the deployment of troops to disputed or Kurdistan areas, notably Kirkuk, flight ban to and from the Kurdistan Region and border closure which came into enforcement by Iran, as a neighboring country on Baghdad's request on Sunday. 

The Peshmerga have recently engaged in a standoff with Iraqi and Hashd al-Shaabi forces in west and south Kirkuk. 

Both the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and Iraq’s Joint Operations Command deny that they are planning to attack the Peshmerga-controlled territories, including Kirkuk, one of the disputed or Kurdistani areas that are under Kurdish control but also claimed by Baghdad. 

The Iraqi PM has called on the Kurdish leadership to administer the disputed areas in a joint manner with the Iraqi government until Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution that concerns the fate of the disputed areas is implemented.