Mr. Sarkis Aghajan, the Finance Minister of the Kurdistan regional Government was interviewed regarding his opinion on the draft regional constitution. He commented:

"There are deficiencies in the draft Kurdistan constitution with regard to the state of our people and their national rights that are too important to ignore and should be addressed." He added that "the draft constitution does not guarantee the rights of our people to self-rule in our areas, the historic Nineveh Plain."

He also expressed his rejection to the seperate designations "Chaldean and Assyrian" in the constitution. He said, "the Constitution separates us into two peoples and this is not acceptable. We are behind the compound designation :'Assyrian Chaldean Syriac' people, which guarantees and unity of our people."

He went on to say "it is important that our people enjoy full national rights constitutionally not only at the regional level, but also in the Iraqi constitution. It is important to ensure that the Assyrian Chaldean Syriac people administer their affairs in their areas including the formation of special police force and internal security made up of our people."

Mr. Sarkis Agajan stated that during the past week, he has had numerous and lengthy discussions in depth on these pressing issues with various officials. He expressed "confidence that unified efforts and awareness can result in obtaining our rights, and that he is optimistic that the development of the draft constitution will be put up for discussion in order to ensure the rights of our Assyrian Chaldean Syriac people be included, before approval of this draft constitution."

www.Ankawa.com

Translated from Arabic by AINA