Nechirvan Barzani: Opponents of the application of Article 140 of the Constitution are against the will of 80% of Iraqis
Nechirvan Barzani: Opponents of the application of Article 140 of the Constitution are against the will of 80% of Iraqis
2021-10-05 02:11
Shafaq News/ The President of Kurdistan Region, Nechirvan Barzani considered on Tuesday that those opposed to the application of Article 140 of the Constitution are against the will of 80 percent of Iraqis who voted for the country’s permanent constitution in 2005.
Barzani, the deputy head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party, said at an electoral festival for the people of Kirkuk in Erbil, “Oh, Kirkuk people, your lands are subject to Arabization, and being Kurdish and Kirkuk is very difficult.”
He addressed the people of Kirkuk by saying: We are all with you, and we are of mind, thought and feelings. We are all Kirkuk, adding that Kirkuk’s wealth should be used to provide job opportunities, and to reconstruct Kirkuk, not to be a subject of greed, and to change the demography of the province.
He added that our war was on the national identity of Kirkuk and its historical geography, as well as the rest of the areas cut off from the Kurdistan region, and we were never against any component, indicating that our demands were not for Kirkuk’s oil, but rather our demands on the identity of Kirkuk.
The head of the region said: We do not want to wage a national war against the people of Kirkuk at all. On the contrary to all the previous regimes that followed the rule of Iraq, we want to provide services and establish stability, security, and achieve true coexistence among the components that live in this province, stressing that ” We do not want, through the fighting, to resolve the fate of Kirkuk, but through Article 140 of the constitution, and this is a legitimate and natural right because the Iraqi people, in 2005, voted on this article.”
Barzani renewed his demand for the application of this constitutional article, saying: Those who oppose its application are against peace, against the constitution, against Iraq’s stability, and against coexistence, adding that “those opposed to its application are against the free will of 80 percent of the Iraqi people who voted for the constitution.”
Kirkuk is one of the disputed areas between Erbil and Baghdad covered by Article 140 of the Constitution, and was under joint authority between the Kurdistan Region and the Federal Government before the independence referendum that the region held in September of 2017.
Article 140 provides for the removal of demographic policies conducted by Saddam Hussein’s regime in the disputed areas in favor of the Arabs at the expense of the Kurds, and then census the population before the last step, which is to hold a referendum according to which the population determines whether they wish to join the Kurdistan Region or remain under the administration of Baghdad.
It was scheduled to complete the implementation stages of the article until the end of 2007, but security and political problems prevented that.
The Federal Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that Article (140) of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq should remain in force, stressing that this will continue until its requirements are implemented and the objective of its legislation is achieved.
shafaq.com
