ERBIL - Kurdistan Regions Democratic Turkmen Party (DTP) with 3 seats in the 111-parliament of Kurdistan Region is eying a ministerial portfolio in the next Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) cabinet that is expected to be announced soon.
DTP won three of the five seats allocated in quota to the minority Turkmen in the semi-autonomous region in the 2010 parliamentary elections. Two other smaller Turkmen parties one one seat each.
Yet it was Erbil Turkmen List (ETL) which received the only ministerial portfolio given to the Turkmen in the power-sharing government. The DTp therefore feel they were wronged.
"While the were negotiation for the formation of the current KRG cabinet, we requested that the ministerial portfolio, that was expected to be given to the Turkmen, to us [DTP], but our request was turned down" Yashar Najmaddin, head of the DTP bloc in the parliament said.
"We hope that the same wrongdoing against us will not be repeated in the new KRG cabinet. The ministerial position that is dedicated to the Turkmen is our right" he said.
Najmaddin said they were planning to have an active participation in the next cabinet if the nee had o fgovernment asked them to.
Tahsin Sherdil, ELT's parliamentarian criticized the DTP statements: "As the Turkmen people, we believe that the ministerial posirtion be given to an independent Turkmen politician who can benefit the Turkmen people as a whole" Shedil said.
"A politician who strictly adheres to a certain political party will only serve the interests of his own party. Therefore, in the current cabinet, Sinan Chalabi who is an independent Turkmen politician and serves as the Trade Minister has been successful in his work"
Sinan Chalabai is the only Turkmen minister in the KRG cabinet.
The new KRG cabinet is expected to be formed soon by Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)'s Nechirvan Barzani, a former KRG Prime Minister. The dates have not been set yet despite ongoing discussions and talks between the political parties about the new cabinet.
The current KRG cabinet has been headed by the Patriotic Union of Kuridstan's (PUK) Barjham Ahmed Salih. He is preparing to quit as part of a political deal between the KDP and PUK under which they entered elections together and shared power 50-50 including each of the two parties heading the government for two years during each term they win in the elections.
© AK News 2012
