Turkmen leader discusses Kirkuk, minority rights with Masoud Barzani
In an interview with Kurdistan 24 on Monday, Kahya described the meeting as having taken place “in a very positive environment.”
“The purpose of the visit was to exchange ideas and consultations in order to reach an understanding and eventually an agreement to serve the Kurdish and Turkmen people and the region in general,” he said.
He also mentioned that Kirkuk is passing through a difficult time and called on everyone to cooperate and contribute to resolving existing points of contention to guarantee the rights of all ethnic and religious groups.
On Oct. 16, 2017, Iraqi forces and Shia-dominated militias attacked and took over Kirkuk and other disputed territories in response to the Kurdistan Region's independence referendum held the month before. Kurdish Peshmerga fighters withdrew from those areas, avoiding major clashes to strengthen their lines and defend the Kurdistan Region.
Tens of thousands of people were displaced in the oil-rich and ethnically diverse province of Kirkuk, most of them Kurdish.
Since then, the province has witnessed instability and an increasing number of insurgent attacks by Islamic State militants and unknown gunmen.
Kirkuk is a disputed province, claimed by both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government of Iraq. The population is made up of Turkmen, Arabs, Christians, and a Kurdish majority.
The future of the province was to be determined through a referendum as is outlined in Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which mandated that the vote was to be held before the end of December 2007. More than a decade after the deadline, the article remains wholly unimplemented.
Editing by John J. Catherine
