The Foreign Ministry reacted to the request of the Kirkuk Provincial Assembly to include Kirkuk in a referendum on Iraqi Kurdistan.

“We had conveyed our views and concerns regarding March 28th and April 4th decisions of the Kirkuk Provincial Council on the status of Kirkuk contrary to the Iraqi constitution, as well as the decision to hold a referendum by the KRG, both to the governments of Iraq and the latter. We also shared our concerns about these decisions with the international community,” said in the written statement made by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

During his visit to Iraq on 23 August 2017, H.E. Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu reiterated once again that the referendum must be backed down, and especially underlined the risks that the attempt to extend the referendum to the disputed territories would carry.

“While holding the referendum would already be a mistake in itself, the decision approved today (29 August) by the Kirkuk Provincial Council to include Kirkuk in the referendum has added a new element to the chain of mistakes and as such constituted another severe violation of the Iraqi constitution. The unacceptable decision of the Kirkuk Provincial Council has been boycotted by the Turkmen and Arab groups, the main constituents of Kirkuk. On this occasion, we remind that Administrative Court of Baghdad, in its ruling of August 17th, concluded that neither the KRG nor the Kirkuk Provincial Council has authority to make any disposition of the disputed areas,” said in the FM’s statement.

Out of 41, 24 members received a decision to join a referendum

Kirkuk County Council decided to attend Kirkuk's independence referendum on September 25th.

The decision, which started at 10:00 yesterday, was taken by majority vote. Kurdish, Turkmen, Arab, Chaldean and Assyrians formed by the Brotherhood Group in favor of 24 votes were voted.

Two Turkmen, two Arab and one Christian representative of the Brotherhood Group voted "yes" for the vote.

Ali Mehdi, a member of the Kirkuk Provincial Council Turkmen Group, stated that the Turkmen and Arab members did not attend the session by boycotting and said they would appeal the decision.

There are 26 Kurds, 9 Turkmens and 6 Arabs in the Kirkuk Provincial Assembly. (ILKHA)