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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Thursday held a meeting with officials from the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Erbil, calling on them to resolve their differences and prepare for the upcoming local elections in Kirkuk province, an attendant of the meeting told Rudaw.
Aydin Maruf, politburo member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, attended the meeting.
“We Turkmens always want to be a good factor to improve Kurdistan Region’s ties with Turkey, and Iraqi-Turkish relations. We mostly talked about the condition of Turkmens in Iraq and Kurdistan Region. We also talked about coexistence of religious and ethnic groups in the Kurdistan Region,” he told Rudaw.
Mohammed Sam’an, spokesperson for the Iraqi Turkmen Front, also talked about the meeting.
“Mr. Hakan Fidan emphasised during the meetings that Turkmens should have representatives in Iraq as do Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. They are one of the main components of Iraq” the spokesperson told Rudaw.
“We said that the Turkmens have been marginalised. [Iraqi PM] Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani promised to include Turkmens in his cabinet but he did not. In addition to deputy ministers and general managers, we have been deprived of assuming many other positions. He stressed the need to preserve the Turkmen identity of this province [Kirkuk]. We as the Turkmen Front have always said that Kirkuk is an Iraqi city with Turkmen characteristics,” he added.
Turkmens will enter the election as one list, excluding those affiliated to Shiite forces. They eye the position of Kirkuk governor and claim that Ankara supports them.
Reporting by Hardi Mohammed
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