Kirkuk has never been a Kurdish city

General Büyükanıt declared that Kirkuk had gone through complete demographic change following the Second Gulf Operation; that according to Ottoman archives in Turkey, Kirkuk has never in history been a place of Kurdish settlement. At a press conference in the United States Büyükanıt said that Kurds want to erase history and that chaos will follow the referendum if Kirkuk joins a semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

They want to erase history
"Kirkuk is being discussed in the wrong terms in Turkey. Of course Kirkuk does not belong to the Republic of Turkey. We have historical ties. I will describe as a military man why we show an interest in Kirkuk. During the Second Gulf Operation, when the city went through complete demographic change, all registered title deeds were destroyed, in order to erase history. However, Turkey holds a large proportion of these documents, dating back to Ottoman times, and it can be seen that Kirkuk was never a Kurdish city."

They will kill each other
"What concerns us is this: There needs to be a referendum in Kirkuk at the end of 2007. [But} it is clear what will occur between the Sunnite Arabs, Turkmen and Kurds harbouring unfriendly feelings towards one another, when such a referendum takes place, with the demographic structure of Kirkuk having been turned topsy-turvy," says Büyükanıt.

The Iraq Study Group said that the Kirkuk situation was a potential "powder keg" and recommended that the referendum be delayed.