Elections fuel fears over Kurdish independence

Kurdish successes in Iraq's elections, notably in the disputed oil centre of Kirkuk, have heightened Turkey's worries about a future Kurdish drive for independence and Iraq's consequent territorial disintegration. With domestic pressure increasing on Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, ministers have hinted at renewed military intervention. This is causing additional strains in Ankara's relations with the US. Turkish concerns focus on the area around multi-ethnic Kirkuk, where the Brotherhood slate allied to the Kurdish Alliance of Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani won 59 per cent of the provincial council vote. The Turkoman Front, representing a minority that Ankara has vowed to protect, took 18 per cent. Turkey ruled Kirkuk until 1923, and nationalists still regard it as Turkish territory. Mr Erdogan has warned that Turkey will not stand by if Kurds try to realise their objective of including Kirkuk in the Kurdish autonomous region. He complained last month that tens of thousands of Kurds had moved into the area since the war. Many want to reclaim land and property lost to the forcible "Arabization" policy pursued by Saddam Hussein. But Ankara protested yesterday that resulting "imbalances" had skewed the Kirkuk poll. The issue has dominated the Turkish media for weeks amid reports of sporadic assaults and intimidation of Turkomans. Turkomans and Iraqi Arabs have vowed to resist Kirkuk's assimilation amid talk of possible civil war.