Turkmen members of the provincial council of the strategically vital northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk have ended their boycott of council meetings, which had been in force for a year and a half.

- 21 / 05 / 2008 09:34

Turkmen members of the provincial council of the strategically vital northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk have ended their boycott of council meetings, which had been in force for a year and a half.

At the moment Kurds hold 26 seats in Kirkuk's 41-member provincial council. There are nine Turkmen members and six Arabs on the council.

In December of last year, Arab and Kurdish parties reached a deal under which the Arabs ended their boycott of the council in return for more equality in the sharing of power.

The Turkmens, however, rejected the agreement and continued boycotting the 41-member council.

Six of the Turkmen council members participated in the council's meeting yesterday.

One the Turkmen members, Ali Mehdi, said their boycott had achieved its goal as their protest "against the unfairness done to Kirkuk's Turkmens has reached both the government and the people."

Mehdi yesterday reiterated the Turkmens' eagerness for the governorship of Kirkuk.

According to the local administration law adopted following the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, every province has a governing council and the council's head can only have one deputy. Additionally, provinces have one governor and one deputy governor.

The boycott ended following Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's visit to Sulaimaniya over the weekend, during which he reassured Turkmens that they would no longer be subjected to any unfair treatment.

It also came days after Turkey's special envoy to Iraq, Murat Özçelik, held talks in Baghdad with senior Iraqi officials.

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