BAGHDAD, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraq said Sunday that the deployment of Turkish outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the ethnically-mixed city of Kirkuk is "war declaration" on the Iraqi people.
A statement by the Iraqi Ministerial Council of National Security, headed by Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, warned that the deployment of such militias, in addition to unofficial militias of the Iraqi Kurdish parties, "is a dangerous escalation that cannot be tolerated and represents a declaration of war against the rest of the Iraqis and regular federal forces."
The security council also warned of the "serious escalation and provocation carried out by the Kurdish forces outside the borders of the Kurdish region, which wants to drag the country into internal strife in order to achieve its goal of dismantling Iraq and the (Middle East) region in order to establish a state on the basis of ethnicity," according to the statement.
The council accused the Kurds of displacing non-Kurdish people in the ethnically-mixed disputed areas "by using force, threats and oppression," according to the statement.
"The prevention of the return of displaced people (in the disputed areas) is aimed at creating demographic change that would drag the country into a devastating conflict," the statement said.
The council reaffirmed that the disputed areas will be run by federal forces and local forces under the leadership of the federal authority, it said.
There has been disagreement between Baghdad and the Kurdish regional government for years, as the ethnic Kurds consider the northern oil-rich province of Kirkuk and parts of Nineveh, Diyala and Salahudin provinces as disputed areas and want them to be incorporated into their region, a move fiercely opposed by the Arabs and Turkomans and by Baghdad government.
The disputed areas are mostly under control of the Kurdish security forces, but in small areas like Tuz-Khurmato there is mixed presence of the federal forces and the Kurdish security forces.
Tension has been running high between Baghdad and the Kurdish government after the Kurds held a controversial referendum on independence of Kurdistan region and the disputed areas.
The independence of Kurdistan is opposed not only by the Iraqi central government, but also by most other countries, because it would threaten the integrity of Iraq and undermine the fight against Islamic State militants.
Iraq's neighboring countries, especially Turkey, Iran and Syria, fear that the Iraqi Kurdish independence move would threaten their territorial integrity, as large population of Kurds live in those countries.
The United States repeatedly warned the Kurds to postpone the referendum, saying such move could derail or confuse the war against IS.
