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Kurdistan
Prime Minister Barzani (left) and head of Soran independent administration Halgurd Sheikh Najib (right) participate in a ceremony to inaugurate the administration on September 14, 2021. Photo: handout/KRG
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani officially handed greater powers to Soran and Zakho towns on Tuesday, turning them into independent administrations as part of his cabinet’s decentralization process.
Soran administration in Erbil will now consist of Soran, Rawanduz, Choman and Mergasor districts while Duhok province’s Zakho administration consists of Zakho and Batifa districts. The heads of the two new entities were inaugurated on Tuesday as well.
Barzani, who attended the inauguration ceremony in Soran, said “today is a historical day.”
He added that the area has been “the base and a support for successive revolutions of our nation. A new phase begins and a bright future awaits you.”
Halgurd Sheikh Najib, mayor of Soran, was appointed as the first head of the administration. He told Rudaw that the directorates of education, health, municipality, and agriculture will be independent of Erbil and they have asked for control over more directorates, such as tourism. The area is famous for its resorts, which are visited by hundreds of thousands of people annually.
Guhdar Shekho, an official from the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), was assigned to lead the Zakho administration.
The KRG announced the decision to devolve powers to Soran and Zakho on July 28, in order to improve services.
Decentralization had already begun in Soran as government offices like passport, citizenship and traffic police are independent of Erbil.
Soran and Zakho are the first independent administrations in Erbil and Duhok provinces, but Sulaimani has led the way with devolution of powers to Raparin and Garmiyan. There have been calls for decentralization in the Region for years and some in Sulaimani calling for full independence.
In its agenda for this cabinet, the KRG said it “will emphasize establishing a decentralised system of power compatible with the legal and administrative system in the KRG.”
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