BBC Monitoring

The Iraqi "Turkoman Front has accused the Kurds of starting a media quarrel and defaming Front officials," Rozhnama newspaper of Wisha company reported on 29 November.

Rozhnama published an article by Hastiyar Qadir saying that the Turkoman Front has accused the Kurds of stepping up a media quarrel between Kurds and Turkomans in Kirkuk as the deadline for the implementation of Article 140 is about to expire.

The writer quoted the Turkoman Front member of Kirkuk Governorate Council (KGC), Zhala Naftchi, as saying that the Kurds started the quarrel by publishing caricatures and articles defaming Front officials. Naftchi also rejected accusations of implementing Turkey's policy, whereas the Kurdish side considers the Front's media attack on Kurds as a plot to show that Kurds are attacking the Turkomans.

"The Turkoman Front wants to drag the Kurdish media, and particularly the Kurdish parties' media, into a quarrel in order to bring people out onto the streets and say that the Kurds are attacking Turkomans," the writer quoted Kurdish member of the KGC, Awat Muhammad Amin, as saying.

Another Turkoman Front member in the KGC! , Fawzi Akram, accused the Kurds and Turkomans equally of the quarrel, saying that the destiny of the two sides is to live together in the city.

Source: Rozhnama, Sulaymaniyah, in Sorani Kurdish 29 Dec 07