President Barzani: We’ll Make Kirkuk an Example of Religious and Ethnic Coexistence

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region— President of the autonomous Kurdistan Region Massoud Barzani made an unannounced visit to Kirkuk on Thursday where he met with Kurdish Peshmerga and security forces and pledged to protect the city and make it “an example of coexistence.”

“My visit here is to meet with military, security and political parties and about how to protect Kirkuk and how to make it an example of ethnic and religious coexistence after returning its real identity,” said Barzani in a town hall meeting, addressing Peshmerga commanders and representatives of political parties in Kirkuk.

“I am here in Kirkuk to congratulate the people of Kurdistan for this big achievement for which we have been struggling and shedding blood for years,” added the Kurdish president.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces moved into Kirkuk city and the southern edges of the province following the complete withdrawal of Iraqi troops two weeks ago. On Thursday yet more Kurdish forces were dispatched to the province with tanks and heavy weaponry.

“We have always said, let the identity of Kirkuk return, then you would see the extent of Kurdish generosity and you would see how big and open is the heart of the Kurds,” said President Barzani, referring to extensive campaigns by previous Iraqi regimes to change the province’s demography. “Today is that day.”

Kirkuk is home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians. However, the Kurds consider it part of their homeland and much of their Kurdish armed and political struggle in the past several decades against Iraq’s central government was over the future of Kirkuk.

“We, Kurds should be more open today towards our brothers --Turkmen, Arabs Christians and all the other religions and sects,” said Barzani.

After the US-led invasion of Iraq and removal of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Kurdish Peshmerga forces were able to control Kirkuk, but they were forced to leave the province, promising that Article 140 of the constitution would resolve the dispute.

Kurdish leaders however, blamed Iraqi leaders, among them Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for procrastination and reluctance to solve the issues and conduct a referendum regarding the fate of the province.

“You all remember that the slogan of our (September) revolution that said Kurdistan or death,” said Barzani.

“Today Kurdistan has been achieved and we must protect it,” he added, as he hailed the landslide Kurdish victory in the provincial and parliamentary polls in the province in April.

Barzani told his audience in the Kirkuk town hall that a “new day” had arrived for the Kurds, saying, “I am very hopeful that this would be the end of all grief and we would be marching towards a new horizon and a brighter and better day.”

The Kurdish president reassured the residents of the province that Peshmerga forces were there to “protect Kirkuk and if necessary I’m ready to carry a gun and defend Kirkuk as a Peshmerga.”