"Turkey tones up Kirkuk warning
ANKARA � Turkey sent a sharpened warning yesterday to Iraqi Kurds over attempts to gain control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk as the countdown for Iraqi polls on Jan. 30 begins.
The Foreign Ministry said yesterday that hundreds of thousands of settlers have been shifted to Kirkuk, even though neither these people nor their families were historically not linked to Kirkuk in any way, and warned this was against the principles for return of Kirkuk residents who were forced out of the city during Saddam Hussein's Arabization campaign.
�Nobody could expose somebody else's territory to an illegal fait accompli,� said Ministry Spokesman Namik Tan. �Iraqis from different communities that inhabited the region have confirmed that this process (of shifting population) has been taking place at a pace and intensity which does not fit into the historical realities and has materially and politically been stimulated and supported by certain political parties.�
Source: Turkish Daily News, 21 January 2005"
The Journal of Turkish Weekly
