On a visit to the USA, the delegation of the Iraqi Turkmen Front presented the normalization of security in Kirkuk as a prerequisite to a referendum on the city’s status.

Below are extracts from an article published by Today’s Zaman:

Iraqi Turkmen people will not recognize the results of a referendum on the status of the strategically important, oil-rich city of Kirkuk if the normalization of security sought by the Iraqi constitution doesn't occur in the city, Saadettin Ergeç, head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC), said in New York following talks with US officials in Washington earlier this week.

An Iraqi Turkmen delegation led by Ergeç was in the US capital to voice their uneasiness over the constitutional process regarding the disputed northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk during talks with senior officials. The delegation later gathered with representatives of the Turkish American society at a meeting in New York, the Anatolia news agency reported on Friday [29 June 2007].

"We will use all of the rights granted to us and continue our struggle. Our basic struggle is to, by all means and first of all, rescue our capital city Kirkuk. […] our goal is at least a special status to be granted to Kirkuk," Ergeç was quoted as saying by Anatolia.