Kirkuk formally joins Union of Turkic World Municipalities in Karaman meeting

KIRKUK, Iraq — Kirkuk's full membership in the Union of Turkic World Municipalities was approved at a meeting held in Karaman, Turkey, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Kürşad Zorlu announced. Zorlu said the Development Road Project being carried out in the province represents one of the key axes of cooperation between Turkey and Iraq, and added that the participation of a Turkish oil company in Kirkuk's oil fields could further strengthen bilateral economic ties. Kirkuk is widely viewed as an ethnically and politically sensitive city, home to Kurdish, Turkmen, Arab, Chaldean and Assyrian communities. Kurds regard the city as historically part of Kurdistan, Turkmens describe it as the main center of their presence in Iraq, and Arab groups oppose its attachment to the Kurdistan Region, emphasizing that it belongs to Iraq. The Baath regime's Arabization policies from the 1970s onward reshaped the city's demographic makeup and displaced large numbers of Kurds. Following the 2003 change of government, constitutional arrangements placed Kirkuk among the disputed territories between the federal government and the Kurdistan Region. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution provides for normalization, a population census and a subsequent referendum, steps that were to be completed by the end of 2007 but have not been implemented to date. No further details on the membership vote were immediately available.