(C) KIRKUK TURKOMAN DIVIDED ON ARTICLE 140, FUTURE STATUS OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KIRKUK 000137

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT, IRMO

E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/2/2016
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PINR PINS PNAT PREF PREL KDEM IZ TU
SUBJECT: (C) KIRKUK TURKOMAN DIVIDED ON ARTICLE 140, FUTURE STATUS OF
KIRKUK

REF: KIRKUK 00000123

KIRKUK 00000137 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: Jim Bigus, PRT Leader, POL, Department of State.

REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY: Turkoman political leaders
from different blocs said on July 26 they do not agree on the
issues of implementation of Article 140 and the future status of
Kirkuk. In separate meetings bloc leaders from the Iraqi
Turkoman Front (ITF) and the Iraqi Turkoman National Gathering
(ITNG) told IPAOs the key disagreement was whether Kirkuk should
be an autonomous federated region or should join the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG). END INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.

(C) ITF - REFERENDUM ON KIRKUK MUST BE NATION-WIDE
-------------- --------------


2. (C) Leaders of the ITF bloc in Kirkuk told IPAOs on July
26, 2006, that the Turkoman of the ITF bloc and the mostly Sunni
Arabs of the Iraqi National Gathering bloc were unified on their
position on Article 140. They said implementation of Article
140 must be under international supervision and that there must
be equal representation of Arabs, Turkoman, and Kurds on the
committee to normalize Kirkuk and implement Article 140. The
ITF representatives also said the referendum on Kirkuk's final
status must be decided on a national level and not limited to
residents of Kirkuk city or province.

(C) KIRKUK SHOULD BE AUTONOMOUS, KURDS STALLING IPCC CLAIMS
-------------- --------------

3. (C) The ITF leaders said Kirkuk should remain its own
autonomous region and should not be incorporated into the KRG
administered areas. They said the Kurds and other advocates of
returning districts and sub-districts detached under Saddam to
Kirkuk Province were ignoring that Chamchamal, for example, was
part of Sulaymaniyah prior to the British occupation following
World War One. The ITF representatives added they had met with
the IPCC head, Ahmad Barak, during their recent trip to Baghdad
for the purpose of arguing their position on Article 140. They
claimed Barak told them over 10,000 IPCC claims, many of them
Turkoman, remained unprocessed because the two Kurdish
representatives to the IPCC in Baghdad refused to sign them.
(Note: Kirkuk IPCC head, Kamal Jamal, told IPAOs on June 25
that the two Kurdish representatives to the IPCC in Baghdad
refused to assume their positions due to security concerns (Ref.
Kirkuk 000123). The IPCC was recently renamed the Commission
for Resolution of Real Property Disputes (CRRPD). End note.)

(C) NON-ITF PARTIES DOMINATED BY KURDS
--------------


4. (C) The ITF members claimed that Turkoman who broke with the
ITF were dominated by Kurds, were only concerned with pushing
Article 140 forward, and did not care about Turkoman problems.
The ITF leaders claimed the Kurdish Kirkuk Provincial Council
(KPC) Chair, Rizgar Ali, wrote a recent letter that was signed
by ITNG members and sent to the ITF. The letter criticized the
ITF media for inciting ethnic violence by blaming the Kurds for
the 1959 violence against the Turkoman of Kirkuk. (Note: The
Communist Party and Turkoman political groups of Kirkuk clashed
in July, 1959, with the Turkoman suffering the majority of
casualties. The Kirkuk Turkoman community frequently refers to
this event as the "Turkoman Massacre" and places blame on the
Kurds, due to the fact that 24 of the 28 convicted of
perpetrating the violence were Kurds. End note.)

(C) NO MILITIA, NO POWER
--------------


5. (C) The ITF leaders said it was becoming increasingly clear
to Turkoman that the reason the Kurds held sway in government
was that they had a militia where the Turkoman and other parties
did not, and that only parties with militias could succeed in
Iraq's current political system. They pointed to Baghdad's
recent offer to enter negotiations with terrorist groups as an
example of how arms can be used successfully to gain political
leverage and capital.

(C) ITNG - "KURDISTAN REGION IS THE TURKOMAN REGION"
-------------- --------------


6. (C) The non-ITF, ITNG representatives in a separate meeting
told IPAO on July 26, 2006, that it was in Turkoman interests to
join the Kurdish region because they could not win against the
Shia who were determined to dominate the south and the rest of
Iraq. The ITNG leaders said the Kurds had assisted and welcomed
the Turkoman during the oppressions of the Saddam regime and
claimed because of this Turkoman viewed Kurdistan as a Turkoman
region. They said the national constitution guaranteed the
rights of Turkoman as a "nation" and that it was illegal to
disconnect districts and sub-districts without the consent of
the governed. Saddam had acted illegally when he disconnected
districts from Kirkuk Province, the ITNG members claimed, and

KIRKUK 00000137 002.2 OF 003


yet this was exactly what the ITF and Arabs were proposing for
Kirkuk when they insisted it be an autonomous federated region.
The ITNG member said it was preferable for the Turkoman to exist
as a "second nation" within the KRG, where their rights would be
secured, than to remain the "third nation" in Iraq.

(C) ITF CREATING BAD BLOOD BETWEEN TURKOMAN AND KURDS
-------------- --------------


7. (C) The ITNG members claimed the ITF media was creating bad
blood between Turkoman and Kurds and expressed concern that
killing based on ethnic-party association could occur as it did
in 1959. The representatives added that the approach of the ITF
to Article 140 reflected their connection to the Turkish Foreign
Ministry. The ITNG leaders claimed the Turkish government was
determined to undermine the normalization process in Kirkuk, and
that the ITF continued to receive one million USD from Turkey to
support various ITF media.

(C) BIOGRPAHIC NOTES ON ATTENDING ITF LEADERS
--------------


8. (C) Hasan Turan Said: Sunni Turkoman; won election to the
KPC as part of the ITF list in January, 2005; born in Kirkuk
city, 1964; began working in political affairs in 1982; one of
the founding members of the Iraqi Turkoman Justice Party, which
was organized after the liberation of the Kurdish areas in 1991
and represents Sunni Turkoman; current spokesman for the Justice
Party; head of the Turkoman Agricultural Engineers Association;
assistant to the Secretary General of the Turkoman Council of
Iraq; the Turkoman Justice Party is regarded as the second
largest party in the ITF coalition after the Turkoman Eli Party.


9. (C) Younis Qadir Ismael Biraqdar: Chairman of the Turkoman
Council of Iraq; born Kirkuk, 1953; former KPC member; worked as
an electrical engineer; received Bachelor's Degree in Electrical
Engineering; former lecturer at the College of Engineering and
Hewija Technical Institute; former head of the Engineers Union
under Saddam; worked as engineer consultant in the private
sector. (Note: the other two, younger ITF representatives
frequently deferred to Biraqdar during the meeting to express
the official Turkoman position on specific issues. End note.)


10. (C) Turham Mudhir Hassan al-Mufti: Shia Turkoman; member
of the Turkoman Independent Movement; born in Kirkuk city; won a
seat on the KPC as part of the ITF list in January, 2005;
received his doctorate in Geochemistry; works as a Remote
Sensing Engineer at the Northern Oil Company; wife was kidnapped
in 2005 and returned after Mufti paid ransom.

(C) BIOGRAPHIC NOTES ON ATTENDING ITNG LEADERS
-------------- -


11. (C) Mouyad Namiq Shakir: Sunni Turkoman; born in Kirkuk;
member of the Turkoman Peoples' Party (TPP),founded in Erbil in
1987, but moved to Sulaymaniyah in 1996 when Saddam returned to
Erbil; won seat on the KPC as part of the Kurd-dominated Kirkuk
Brotherhood List; heads KPC Security Committee; head of
De-Bathification Committee; member of the TPP Central Committee;
heads the TPP's Information and Relations Bureau; received
Bachelor's Degree in Law and is a practicing lawyer.


12. (C) Mofaq Mohammed Qoryali: Sunni Turkoman; born in
Kirkuk, 1957; Secretary General of the Turkoman al-Shrooq
("Sunrise") Party, founded in 1999 and represents Sunni
Turkoman; according to Qoryali, the, party attracts women and
student unions; his father opposed the former regime, resulting
in his family being expelled by Saddam.


13. (C) Saif al-Din Damrichi (Dr.): Secretary General of the
Turkoman Union Party (TUP),which was founded in exile; lived 17
years in exile until OIF; two administrative bodies govern the
TUP, the Central Committee with 13 party members,and the
Politburo with 16 members.


14. (C) Ali Sharika: Representative for the Kirkuk branch of
the Turkoman Brotherhood Party (TBP),founded in 1989 in
response to Saddam's pressure on ethnic groups in Kirkuk; after
1991 TBP started operating in the Kurdish liberated areas; TBP
worked closely with the KDP and PUK, with offices in
Sulaymaniyah and Kirkuk.

(U) COMMENT
--------------


15. (C) ITNG representatives noted that their parties, along
with all other political parties in the Kurdish areas, received
financial support from the KRG Ministry of Finance, which
probably influences the official position of the ITNG on Article

KIRKUK 00000137 003.2 OF 003


140 and the future status of Kirkuk. IPAO's past meetings with
Turkoman leaders would indicate that the ITNG represents mostly
Sunni Turkoman and that it exercises limited influence within
the Kirkuk Brotherhood List. The ITNG likely reflects the
official Kurdish stance on key issues, while most Turkoman
parties not belonging to the ITF bloc probably would agree with
its position on Article 140 and Kirkuk becoming an autonomous
province.
JBIGUS