Iraq's Kurdish political parties on Friday have called on Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to warn the Turkish government during his planned visit not to interfere in Iraq's internal affairs, according to dpa. Kurdish parliamentarian Abdul Khalek Zankana was quoted by the Aswat al-Iraq news agency as saying "the interference on the part of the Turks has reached a considerable scale." Zankana added that it was a good time to begin discussions on the issue following the election victory of Turkey's Islamic-conservative AKP party. Iraqi Kurds have complained above all of Turkish military attacks on positions of the radical Kurdish workers party PKK within Iraqi territory. In addition, the Turkish leadership wants to prevent the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and its large oil fields from becoming a part of a Kurdish autonomous area. Meanwhile, the Turkish-backed Iraqi minority Turkmen have accused the president of the autonomous region of inciting Kurds to violence. The Turkmen Front called on the government to prosecute Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani for breaching of the anti-terrorism code for his openly threatening that civil war would occur if the Iraqi constitution was amended in regard to Kirkuk. Iraqi Kurds insist that a referendum be held to decide whether Kirkuk should be included in the Kurdish area. Turkmen and Arabs in the city have rejected such a referendum.
