| | | The US did not believe that there was widespread abuse of the electoral system by Iraqi Kurds registering in Kirkuk, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
In Iraq, resolving the questions of unfair policies of the toppled Saddam Hussein administration, such as forcible immigration from Kirkuk and its surrounding, seizure of assets, and changing of the administrative borders is an domestic matter that Iraqis will decide on themselves, Boucher said.
Ankara has expressed concern that up to 100,000 Iraqi Kurds have been shifted into the oil rich city of Kirkuk, with some 80,000 having been registered to vote, to ensure that Kurdish parties will win a majority of seats in the region in Sundays poll. Turkey fears that the local ethnic Turkomen community will be swamped by the influx of Iraqi Kurds from other regions.
Bouhcer had earlier stated that the US approves of 58 article of the Iraqi constitution enabling Kirkuk to define its status according to the constitution to be passed this year. Ankara opposes to the changing of the borders of Kirkuk.
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