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| Iraq | |
| Leading Kurdish factions affirm unified government | |
| 2003-06-20 | |
| Iraqi Kurds are on their way to establishing a unified Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq after their two main factions agreed to put their rancorous past behind them and merge their current local administrations. Neshirvan Barzani, prime minister in Massoud Barazaniâs Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) government, and Adnan Mufti, deputy prime minister in Jalal Talabaniâs Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) government, will both retain the same positions in the new united government, KDPâs media reported Wednesday. The KDP will have six ministers in the 11-minister Cabinet, while the PUK will have five. In a joint news conference after a meeting between the two partiesâ leaderships in the northern town of Dokan, officials announced that a committee would be formed from members of both parties to set up the mechanism of unifying the two governments. No timetable was set for the implementation of the unification project, which comes after the reactivation of the Kurdish Parliament in October 2002, six years after it ceased activity. Kurds hope that parliamentary elections in the north, and the subsequent formation of a government would be held in the near future. âWe should learn from past experiences,â said Azad Jundiani, an official from the PUK. He told The Daily Star in a phone interview from Dokan that the days of inter-Kurdish rivalries were gone. âWe have a common history and a common future and we must put forward a well-defined plan to be presented at the national level,â Jundiani pointed out. He also said that Kurds perceive themselves as Iraqis and have no cessation plans. âWe only seek self-determination within a federal state,â he added.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 I dunno if they can keep it together - the egos involved are bigger than the territory they "control." But one can hope. The Kurdish region of Iraq is the only functional and civil area in the country - probably because they're NOT ARABS. Personally, I hope that, someday, they get to form a nation - and take the northern oilfields with them. And I hope that the Southern area of Turkey and the Northwestern chunk of Iran that are also centuries-old Kurdish territories, join it. Fuck Turkey and Iran. (Ed. do you mean October 2003, instead of 2002?) Oh, and fuck Turkey and Iran. |
| Posted by: PD 2003-06-20 23:00:13 |