Kerkuk Left to Bagdat For Now

Article 58 of the Iraqi Interim Constitution will remain in effect regarding Kerkuk (Kirkuk), which Kurdish officials insist on being dependent on the Kurdistan Federation and the final decision will be made by a new parliament to be formed after the elections to be held at the end of the year, it has been announced. Until the new Iraqi parliament is elected, Kirkuk wil be given to no federal regions and will remain directly dependent on Baghdad. The parties have reached an agreement that a Kurdish federation will be established in the regions outside of Kirkuk of which Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Jalal Talabani will be the official president.

While Kurds have been guaranteed representation, Kurdish officials demanded the articles that have been agreed upon to be turned into a written agreement. The criteria to determine the status of Kirkuk exist in the article 58 of the Iraqi Interim Constitution. According to the paragraph "c" of in the article, the final status of controversial regions will be clarified after a population census and a permanent constitution will take effect, but because there was no population census, Kurdish officials had asked that the future of Kirkuk would be determined by a referendum. After negotiation with Turkmen, Shiite officials objected to this. PUK official Fuad Kemal said that the parties have overcome the bottleneck over Kirkuk. Expressing that they will rely upon the Interim Constitution, Kemal noted that the new status

of the city will be determined by the new parliament. Negotiating with the Shiite Alliance on behalf of PUK for Kirkuk, Kemal announced that a commission will be formed to provide for the return of Kurds who were forced into exile during Saddam’s regime. Cevat al Poloni from of the Shiite Alliance also noted that an Arab-Turkmen commission will be formed to oversee the coordinated return of Kurds to Kirkuk.

The Kurdish Alliance has 77 deputies and the Shiites have 146 in the 275-seat Iraqi Parliament. If no party could form a majority it was expected that the Shiites and Kurds would form a coalition. The president will be determined by the parliament and the president will appoint the prime minister and the cabinet. The parliament will prepare a constitution, which will be put to a referendum in October 2005. If approved, general elections will be conducted in December 2005.