ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The mayor of Tuz Khurmatu says that a provisional plan by Baghdad to convert the disputed district in northeastern Iraq into one of three new provinces is impossible because of the lack of infrastructure.
“The administration of Tuz Khurmatu and most of the population, including Turkomans and Arabs, are against the decision to turn the town into a province because Tuz has no infrastructure to become a province," mayor Shalal Abdul told Rudaw by phone.
Iraq’s Council of Ministers has given provisional approval to turn Tuz Khurmatu, Fallujah and the Nineveh Plain of Talafar into new provinces.
Abdul called the decision “political," saying it was related to the nationwide legislative elections that are due in April. "It’s a political decision related to the election campaign," he charged.
The mayor said that the town council would hold an extraordinary session with the Saladin Provincial Council to discuss the matter.
“The resolution of turning Tuz Khurmatu and Talafar must be approved by the parliament in order to take effect,” noted Torhan, Mufti, the minister of state for provincial affairs.
Tuz Khurmatu, a town and district in Saladin province, falls inside Iraq’s so called “disputed territories,” which are claimed both by the Shiite Arab government in Baghdad, and the autonomous and largely Sunni Kurds in the north.
“We see the resolution to turn Tuz Khurmatu and Talafar into provinces in contradiction to the law, since these areas are within the disputed areas,” Azad Abu Bakr Zainal, a Kurdish MP in the Iraqi parliament, told the local Xendan website.
Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein separated Tuz Khurmatu from Kirkuk province in 1976 and attached it to Saladin as part of a process to change the demographics of oil-rich Kirkuk in favor of the Arabs.
Kurds hope the town will become part of their autonomous Kurdistan Region in the north, once the controversial issue of the disputed territories is settled according to procedures spelled out in the constitution.
Iraqi ministers also approved a plan to turn Halabja into a province last month, a decision that was welcomed by the Kurdistan Regional Government.
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