ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Najmaldin Karim, ousted governor of Kirkuk province, died in Washington DC early Saturday after suffering a stroke. Karim was a fervent supporter of the Kurdistan independence referendum, a stance that cost him his job and forced him to flee Kirkuk.
In his will, Karim said “he wants to be buried in Kurdistan temporarily and then moved to Kirkuk when the city is free, secure, and under the control of the Peshmerga,” according to a statement from his office.
Born in Kirkuk in 1949, Karim moved to Mosul as a student to study medicine. He joined the Kurdish Peshmerga forces in 1972 and became the special physician of famed Kurdish leader Mullah Mustafa Barzani. Karim accompanied Barzani to the United States for medical treatment and later died.
Karim stayed in the US until 2009 when he returned to the Kurdistan Region. Three years later, he became governor of Kirkuk on the ticket of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
He raised the Kurdistan flag in the disputed city of Kirkuk, championed the 2017 Kurdistan independence referendum, and supported Kirkuk taking part in the vote. A month later, in October 2017, Iraqi troops and Iranian-backed paramilitary forces drove the Peshmerga out of Kirkuk and other disputed areas. Karim was removed from his post by Baghdad and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Karim fled to Erbil.
Karim defended his controversial decision to fly the Kurdish flag in Kirkuk, saying it would “strengthen brotherhood in Kirkuk, not jeopardize it” and he aspired to unify the many ethnic groups that live in the province and contest local elections.
Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Regional Government Masrour Barzani said in a statement that Karim “played an important role in Kurdistan peoples’ struggle for freedom and introduced the Kurdish issue in diplomatic and academic centers in the world.”
He added that Karim had worked on strengthening coexistence in the multi-ethnic province of Kirkuk as its governor.
President Nechirvan Barzani said that both as a physician and a Peshmerga, Karim contributed to Kurdish revolutions of Aylul (September) and Gulan (May) against Iraqi government in the sixties and the seventies.
Elham Ahmad, President of the executive committee of the Syrian Democratic Council in northeastern Syria (Rojava), described Karim as a “great Kurdish leader.”
The co-chairs of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar, praised Karim’s leadership in multi-ethnic Kirkuk.
“Despite the existence of various voices and colours in Kirkuk, Najmaldin Karim managed to administer the city, leaving a significant impact on co-existence among the nations and protecting the peace for all the components. His dream and objectives are the legacy of the Kurdish nation and the friends of Kurds,” read a statement from them.
The US Consulate General in Erbil extended condolences on Karim's passing. "We share our deepest sympathies with Karim's family, his friends, and the people of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region and Iraq," it stated.
Clarisse Pasztory, former head of the European Union's liaison office in Erbil, described Karim as a "sly, compassionate, unyielding son of Kurdistan and champion for cohabitation in Kirkuk. His legacy preceded him, may he now RIP."
Updated at 6:46pm
