Political tension on rise in Kirkuk

Basil Adas, Gulf news

Kirkuk, the oil-rich province of northern Iraq is back in the forefront of political events in light of two developments: Turkish intervention to benefit the Iraqi Turkmen minority, and secondly the Kurdish leader Masoud Barazani's statements which asserted that Kirkuk is Kurdish land. His statement infuriated the Turks and Sunni and Shiite Arabs. Khisro Mohammad, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan's political bureau (led by President Jalal Talabani), told Gulf News: "The escalation in Kirkuk is basically Turkish escalation." He accused the Turks of taking advantage of the Turkmen minority to drag the Kurds into a conflict with Arabs and Turkmen...

continua / continued