By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA 

The Iraqi city of Kirkuk should be run in accordance with its “historic depths”, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said Tuesday.

The demographic make-up of the oil-rich region, which includes Turkmens, Arabs and Kurds, had changed since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, he told a meeting of Justice and Development (AK) Party lawmakers.

“It is a positive development that Kirkuk has been taken under the control of the Iraqi central government,” Yildirim said.

He added: “The points to consider here are that an administrative system that should re-establish a demographic status based on the historical depths of the region should be put in place.”

On Monday, Iraqi forces took over Kirkuk from Kurdish elements. The operation came weeks after an illegitimate independence referendum in territory controlled by the Erbil-based Kurdish Regional Government (KRG).

Kirkuk was among territory seized by Kurdish forces when the Iraqi military abandoned the city in the face of Daesh advances in 2015 but is not within the borders of the KRG’s autonomous territory.

Backing Baghdad’s decision, Yildirim said Kirkuk had historically been a Turkmen area but “this structure has changed over time.”

Referring to Saturday’s truck bombing in Somali capital Mogadishu, Yildirim said: “Turkey was there just hours after the bombing. Turkey's ministers were there, health crews were there.”

He added that a Turkish-built hospital, the Recep Tayyip Erdogan Hospital, had played a crucial role in caring for the wounded after the blast, which killed more than 300.

“We do not go to the places we have gone out of any calculation,” he said. “We do not go for dollars, for money but we go for humanity and brotherhood. This is our difference.”

Iraq says in full control of Kirkuk oil fields