The Faraj List of Exploding Stocks Part 3.04 (FAR3)

sweety pie,

thank you for your update on pet.

i believe the award of the kirkuk contract to a turkish company has been rooted in politics, in a way quite understandably.

kirkuk is populated by kurds, arabs and turks. it has been for long the focus of much in fighting between these groups of inhabitants on one hand and the centre government on the other.

the kurds of kirkuk have long desired to join the rest of the federally independent kurdistan that was carved up from the control of saddam and declared as a safe heaven by the allies after the first gulf war over 10 years agw when sadaam was kicked out of kuwait. the centre government of iraq in the past has tried to do its best to disallow the annexation of the most oil rich city in iraq to the kurdish zone. it employed a policy of arabisatin whereby arabs were brough over, with incentives of money homes and jobs, from the south and settled in kirkuk. the other wing of the arabisation policy included incentives and threats to make the indiginous kurds to leave kirkuk.

at the same time turky had traditionally made claims to northern iraq, where kirkuk is situated. after the recent iraqi war that saw sadaam kicked out of power, turkey under the pretext of protecting the turkish minority in kirkuk, moved much of its military hardware to the borders with iraq threatining to invade northern iraq.

i believe that the main reason for turke's worry is not so much the protection of the interests of the turkish minority in iraq, but the acqusition of a slice of the iraqi oil region! turky is economically poor and northern iraq is rich with oil!!

america and the allies must have done their share to stop turkey from invading northern iraq. i suggest there must have been economic deal promises too. so the award of the contract of oil exploration to a turkish company comes as no surprise to me.