NEW KURDISH CONSTITUTION CLAIMS SWATHES OF IRAQ
Agence France Presse — English
September 24, 2006 Sunday 3:35 PM GMT
Iraq’s Kurdish parliament on Sunday began debating the region’s
permanent constitution, a contentious document laying claim to other
parts of Iraq and setting conditions for Kurds to remain part of
the country.
The 160-article document will be debated and amended ahead of a
December 1 parliamentary vote by the Kurdish autonomous region’s
parliament.
According to Article Two, Iraq’s Kurdish region consists of the three
current provinces of Dohuk, Arbil and Sulaimaniyah, but also Kirkuk
province and parts of Diyalah, Nineveh and Wasit provinces.
"The populations of these areas were taken from Kurdistan and when
they are returned to Kurdistan, they will benefit from the same rights
given to them by the federal constitution," stated the article.
Large numbers of Sunni Arabs, Turkmen and Shiites live in these
areas and have not expressed an interest in being part of the Kurdish
autonomous region.
The official languages of the region are Arabic and Kurdish and the
population is recognized to include Turkmens, Chaldeans, Assyrians,
Armenians, Kurds and Arabs.
The constitution goes on to state that the Kurds have "chosen a liberal
federation with Iraq as long as it respects the federal constitution,
its federal, democratic and multiparty parliament."
The Kurds reserve the right to review this choice should the federal
constitution be violated, particularly the democratic or human rights
aspects, or if a federal constitution article allowing a referendum
for the future of Kirkuk is not respected.
The Kurdish national flag will hang in government offices side by
side with the Iraqi federal flag (which has yet to be redrawn), stated
the draft. Currently the Kurdish regional president, Mahmud Barzani,
has banned the display of Iraq’s old national flag.
While the constitution bans the existence of militias, it recognizes
the historic Kurdish guerilla force of peshmergas as "the regular
forces to protect and defend the region".