Iraq's Kurdish-Turkmen Cohabitation Tested by Extremists on Both Sides
on one side there are those who would do everything to stop Kirkuk from becoming a capital of Kurdish self-rule, including provoking the intervention of Turkish troops.
On the other there are those who view the Turkmens as the henchmen of the toppled regime of president Saddam Hussein and as such have no say in shaping the area's future.
Then there are the moderates who try to bring down the tempo in a city that has always been regarded as a model for racial harmony between Arabs, Kurds and the minority Turkmens, who share a common ethnic and linguistic background with the Turks.
Erfan Kirkukly is one Turkmen in favor of dialogue.
"Before Saddam Hussein, Kurds and Turkmens were on good terms. It is he who set each one against the other. Kurds, Turkmens, Arabs and Assyrians are all brothers and we should all work together for a better future for Kirkuk," said the official with the Turkmen Popular Party of Iraq. "We also were kicked out of our homes. Many among us still live in camps. We also were victims of the Arabisation drive." Kirkukly believes reports of ethnic clashes following the fall of Kirkuk to U.S. troops and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters on Thursday are "nothing but propaganda."
It is a different mood at the digs of the Iraqi Turkmen front. At the entrance one is greeted with a banner that reads "Kirkuk is a nail in our enemy's eye," and the place has an air of an entrenched camp.
Inside overexcited men call for the taking up of arms.
"We need to stock up everything here," says one man carrying a Kalashnikov rifle, a common sight in a city awash with arms.
Some go on to recount a litany of losses suffered at the hands of Kurds in the past few days, from a flour-mill that was completely plundered to stolen vehicles and looted homes.
"No, no, it's because we are Turkmen," they all say, when told that everyone has suffered in the looting and chaos that followed the fall of Kirkuk.
Their leader Kemal Yaycili is in favor of his compatriots taking up arms and for the entry of Turkish troops into Iraq.
For him Kirkuk is a city that is 85 percent Turkmen, which contradicts most estimates that point to a population evenly divided between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmens.
Turkey has vowed to protect the interests of the Turkmens and to prevent the creation of an independent Kurdish state, which it believes would rile up secessionist sentiments among its own Kurdish population.
Most Kurds aspire to more autonomy within a united Iraq, rather than outright independence.
Leaders of the patriotic union for Kurdistan Party and its rival Kurdistan Democratic Party say that some Turkmens are just looking for "excuses" to provoke Turkey to send in troops. They all deny that any ethnic fighting has taken place, despite all the "provocation" from the Turkmen side.
Ankara has already threatened before the start of the war on March 20 to send troops into the region if Kurds seize Kirkuk and Mosul, a region which was part of the Ottoman Empire 80 years ago. Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Thursday that Ankara had agreed with Washington to send military observers to monitor whether Kurdish forces have left Kirkuk. (AFP)