Kurdish Alliance Grabs 68 % of Kerkuk Votes

Talabani claimed that the joint Kurdish list has received 68 percent of the total votes in the northern Iraqi city of Kerkuk (Kirkuk) and added that in some electoral districts, they saw 90 percent voter turnout. Talabani made a statement yesterday at his Suleymaniyah headquarters in which he stressed that Kirkuk will be a city of fraternity between Kurds and Turkmens. He claimed that Kirkuk is a city of Iraqi Kurdistan, a fact which can be proven with many Ottoman archive documents. The Kurdish leader added they have adapted the Brussels model for Kirkuk. "We don’t want the Kurdish majority to oppress other minorities because Kurds, Turkmen, and Arabs in Kirkuk have always lived in peace and will continue to do so."

‘If we wanted independence, we wouldn’t go to Bagdat’

As for relations with Turkey, Talabani expressed his wish for good relations with Turkey across all of Iraq "because these will be relations of two democratic countries. Everyone knows now what we, the Kurds, want. When we stood up against Saddam, it was said that the Kurds want separation. We didn’t do anything to break away from Iraq. On the contrary, we wanted to remain within Iraq. Once Saddam was gone, everyone thought the Kurds would declare independence. On the contrary, we went to Bagdat (Bagdhad). Many Iraqis want to spread the democratic environment here across all of Iraq."