| Thousands of Kurds displaced from this northern city by Saddam Hussein began formally registering Tuesday as residents of Kirkuk in a bid to make themselves the majority in the province and bolster their claims to this oil-rich region. The move came as Iraqi officials are trying to draft the country's new constitution that is widely expected to turn Iraq into a federal state. Kurds would like to incorporate the Kirkuk area into their self-ruled region — a move opposed by Arabs, Turkomen and the Turkish government in Ankara. An estimated 80,000 Kurds were displaced by Saddam in the 1980s and registered as residents of the Kurdish-ruled provinces of Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. They were replaced by Arabs as part of Saddam's campaign to change the demographics of the province of 850,000 people. |