By Hiwa Husamaddin KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region— The main ethnic and religious groups in the disputed city of Kirkuk have shown support for a referendum that aims to determine the fate and future status of the oil-rich city, according to tribal and political representatives in Kirkuk who have spoken to Rudaw. The referendum, if held, will decide whether or not the city and its surrounding areas would be incorporated into the Kurdistan region as the three main communities of Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs will have their say in the public vote. Kurdistan region will also go to polls in the same referendum to vote on its possible independence from Iraq. “We have lived with our Kurdish brothers in many areas and backed one another as in the war against ISIS. If our rights are preserved, we’ll certainly support them in other issues,” said Najat Hussein who is a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) in Kirkuk, one of the main Turkmen groups in the country. “We don’t want to foresee a future in which we would need passports and visas to travel to Erbil and Sulaimani,” Hussein told Rudaw referring to the two main Kurdish cities. But the Turkmen vote is as divided as the city of Kirkuk itself with many of them still favoring a union with Iraq. This is why a constitutional referendum is very much needed, said Kirkuk’s strongman Sheikh Sami Bayati who is the head of Arab Bayati tribe in the city. “The referendum is a quite important thing. We are in Kurdistan and don’t want to break away from it. But our rights as a nation should be protected as many areas and villages have Arab populations,” Bayati said. He added that most Arab tribal leaders would support the referendum if their rights were met. According to Iraq’s constitution the fate of most disputed areas should be determined through a referendum, but no public vote has taken place so far as Iraq’s fragmented political leadership failed to enforce such ethnically sensitive polls. Following Iraqi army’s retreat from northern areas of the country ahead of ISIS offensive in June 2014, peshmarga forces have been patrolling most disputed areas close to Kurdish borders. Kurdistan region President, Massoud Barzani has said the referendum will likely to take place before the end of this year and include both Kirkuk and Yezidi town of Shingal among others.
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