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More than 1,000 Sunni Arabs and Turkmen rallied Saturday against Kurdish demands to incorporate the oil-rich area around Kirkuk into their autonomous region, on the eve of a special session of parliament aimed at defusing the crisis. The dispute over Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire, and its vast oil wealth has blocked passage of legislation providing for provincial elections this year, a major U.S. goal aimed at reconciling Iraq’s rival ethnic and religious communities.

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Iraqi parliamentarians failed on Sunday to pass a law on provincial elections, putting the date of important polls in doubt and leaving unresolved a political standoff that has stoked ethnic tensions.

After struggling for hours to reach a quorum, lawmakers indefinitely postponed a special session they had called to pass the law, which has come unstuck over plans for the disputed northern city of Kirkuk and minority Kurds.

The delay may mean the elections, originally planned for Oct. 1, could be put off until next year. Electoral officials have said they need months to plan once the law is passed.

More than 1,000 Sunni Arabs and Turkmen rallied Saturday against Kurdish demands to incorporate the oil-rich area around Kirkuk into their autonomous region, on the eve of a special session of parliament aimed at defusing the crisis.

The dispute over Kirkuk, an ancient city that once was part of the Ottoman Empire, and its vast oil wealth has blocked passage of legislation providing for provincial elections this year, a major U.S. goal aimed at reconciling Iraq’s rival ethnic and religious communities.

Protesters in the town of Hawija, west of Kirkuk, carried banners rejecting Kurdish demands for control of Kirkuk, said Brig. Gen. Sarhat Qadir of the Kirkuk police.

The rally ended without any violence, but residents said the atmosphere was tense in Kirkuk, where a suicide bomber killed 25 people Monday during a Kurdish protest.

Last month, Iraq’s parliament approved legislation to hold elections for local councils in all 18 provinces, including Tamim, where Kirkuk is located.

The measure said seats on the ruling council in the Kirkuk area should be divided equally among Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs. It would also transfer security responsibilities in Kirkuk to mostly Arab military units brought from central and southern Iraq instead of those already there – an apparent move against Kurdish peshmerga troops heavily deployed in the area.

But Kurds and their allies, who currently hold a majority on the council, oppose the power-sharing formula. Iraq’s three-member presidential council rejected the measure and sent it back to parliament after President Jalal Talabani – a Kurd – opposed it.

The United Nations has recommended postponing provincial elections in Kirkuk as a way of ensuring the balloting elsewhere in the country.

It was unclear, however, whether the Kurds would agree to the U.N. proposal. Many Iraqi Arabs and Turkmen believe control of Kirkuk could encourage Kurds to declare full independence for their self-ruled region.

Iraqi politicians held meetings Saturday in hopes of narrowing differences before the Sunday parliament session. But little sign of compromise emerged.

Kurdish lawmaker Mahmoud Othman told The Associated Press that the Kurds were strongly opposed to the quota system for the council and to bringing in soldiers from elsewhere because it cast doubt “on the honesty and the loyalty of the current security force in Kirkuk.”

The Kurds also were insisting on a clear statement that the law would not supersede a constitutional formula providing for a referendum on the future of Kirkuk, which has been repeatedly delayed, Othman said.

Sunni Arab legislator Osama al-Nujeifi said his group was unwilling to make concessions over Kirkuk and accused the Kurds of trying to “marginalize any other ethnic group, control Kirkuk and annex it to ‘Kurdistan’.”

“The situation is very tense there,” Sadettin Ergenc, head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, said of Kirkuk. “The Kurds want to lay bricks for an independent state but escalating tensions will not bring any good to anyone,” he was quoted by the AP as saying.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan telephoned Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Friday to express concern over Kirkuk and the status of the city’s Turkmen minority, according to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry.

Iraqi Kurds have long considered Kirkuk rightfully theirs – a claim challenged by many Arabs and Turkmen.

The regime of the late President Saddam Hussein moved hundreds of thousands of Arabs from southern Iraq into the Kirkuk area and forced out many Kurds in a bid to keep the oil-rich area under Arab control.

U.S. officials have been pressing for provincial elections to redress an imbalance in local governments and encourage disaffected Sunnis to join the political process.hurriyet

, Voice of a Nation

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