Official: President Masum not willing to visit Kirkuk, nor send presidential guards
Shwan Dawoodi, a Kurdish MP in Baghdad from the PUK bloc said that Aso Mamand, head of the party's office in Kirkuk had asked Masum to visit Kirkuk or send his presidential guards in order to be deployed in the city "but unfortunately he is not ready to do so while [former president] Jalal Talabani had dedicated most of his time to Kirkuk."
The position of the Iraqi president has been held by a Kurd from the PUK since 2005. The deceased PUK leader Jalal Talabani served as president from 2005 to 2014 and Masum from 2014 to the present.
Abdullah Aliyawai, an adviser to Masum dismissed the claim saying the president "would be very pleased" to deploy the presidential guards to Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu, but the movement of any armed force is under the command of Haider al-Abadi, the commander in chief of the armed forces, not the president.
Aliyawai added "Masum would really like to send the Republican guards to Tuz Khurmatu, because the people of the city trust them which will pave the way for the displaced persons to return. But the forces must go upon Abadi's command."
He revealed it was initially decided for a group from the Republican Guards to be sent to the region, but indications on the ground show that "Abadi has backtracked from the decision."
He claimed, a Shiite Turkmen leader named Mohammed Bayyati had suggested to Abadi to not order the deployment of the presidential guards to Khurmatu given that they were Kurds.
More than 181,000 people who fled their homes as a result of fighting between Iraqi and Kurdish forces in disputed areas in mid-October remain displaced, the United Nations reported.
An unknown armed group numbering around 200 has reportedly been stationed in two villages near Tuz Khurmatu south of Kirkuk, a local official told Rudaw over the weekend.
"For a while now an unknown group has been stationed near Palkana Salim and Palkana Sedakan villages," Mullah Karim Shukur, a local PUK official told Rudaw last week.
Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu fell to the Iraqi army and Iran-backed Shiite groups on October 16.