Kurds Reclaiming Prized Territory In Northern Iraq

[occuserpens]

From Cole's site...

This is a relatively minor development, but it is a part of horrifying pattern. With or without occupation, "demographic engineering" is inevitable in Iraq. So, this is what is going on, Kurds are learning from the Israelis.

Steve Fainaru. Kurds Reclaiming Prized Territory In Northern Iraq: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901396.html

Providing money, building materials and even schematic drawings, Kurdish political parties have repatriated thousands of Kurds into this tense northern oil city and its surrounding villages, operating outside the framework of Iraq's newly ratified constitution and sparking sporadic violence between Kurdish settlers and the Arabs who are a minority here, according to U.S. military officials and Iraqi political leaders.

The rapidly expanding settlements, composed of two-bedroom concrete houses whose dimensions are prescribed by the Kurdish parties, are effectively re-engineering the demography of northern Iraq, enabling the Kurds to add what ultimately may be hundreds of thousands of voters ahead of a planned 2007 referendum on the status of Kirkuk. The Kurds hope to make the city and its vast oil reserves part of an autonomous Kurdistan.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. This is going to

piss off Turkey for sure.

[maddezmom]

2. duplicate topic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1887490