Turkey has firmly condemned a deadly attack on the office of the Iraqi Turkmen Front in Yengice, calling for a delay in the referendum on Kirkuk in anticipation of a census.

Below are extracts from an article published by Today’s Zaman:

The Turkish capitol has harshly condemned a deadly armed attack against the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) office in the town of Yengice in northern Iraq over the weekend [28-29 July 2007].

“… We expect the perpetrators to be captured in the shortest time and be handed over to the judiciary. Our support of efforts to build an Iraq in which all segments of the Iraqi people can live in peace and comfort will continue,” the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement released on Monday [30 July 2007].

The death toll in Saturday [28 July 2007] evening’s attack was seven people, ITC Turkey representative Ahmet Muratlı told Anatolia news agency on Monday [30 July 2007]. ITC’s Yengice representative, Adnan Rıfat, was seriously wounded and lost two sons in attack, Muratlı said.

[…] Yengice is 100 kilometers from the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk. The attackers escaped by car.

Earlier this month at least 85 people were killed and 180 wounded by a suicide truck bomb in the volatile Iraqi city of Kirkuk. The blast heightened tension in the northern city shared by Kurds, Turkmen, Shiite and Sunni Arabs, which plans to hold a crucial referendum on its future. Near an office of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) run by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, the blast was one of several attacks in Kirkuk, a city supposed to vote this year on whether to join a semi-autonomous Kurdish region.

Ankara says the referendum [on the status of Kirkuk] has to be postponed given that a population census which should have been conducted prior to the referendum has not yet been carried out. Demands to delay the referendum are supported by other groups in Iraq, including Sunni Arabs who also constitute a part of Kirkuk’s population.