Iraq
From left: Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani, and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi during a meeting of the State Administration Coalition on September 9, 2023. Photo: Sudani's office
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Iraq’s State Administration Coalition has agreed to send a “leadership committee” from the coalition to the multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk a week after unrest between Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen protesters turned deadly.
Tensions escalated in Kirkuk on September 2 after Arab and Turkmen demonstrators staged a sit-in near the headquarters of the Iraqi military’s Joint Operations Command (JOC), located on the main Kirkuk-Erbil road in what used to be an office of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), angry that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani reportedly ordered Iraqi forces to evacuate the headquarters and two other buildings to allow the Erbil-based KDP to return to its offices.
As the city’s disgruntled Kurdish majority staged a counter-protest, Iraqi security forces opened fire and killed at least four Kurdish protesters.
The State Administration Coalition agreed to “form a leadership committee from the coalition to visit Kirkuk province, hold meetings with official and social activists for all components of the province, finding solutions to immediate problems, most notably the issue of the headquarters, and make administrative adjustments in Kirkuk to maintain balance between all its components,” said an early Sunday statement by Sudani’s office.
The meeting was also attended by Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid and Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi, in addition to Sudani.
The State Administration Coalition is an alliance of Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish political parties in Iraq that successfully broke the political deadlock that suffocated the country and left it without a government for over a year. The coalition backed then-prime minister-designate Sudani and voted to elect his cabinet in October of last year.
The coalition also agreed to back an Iraqi parliament decision “to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the facts in Kirkuk, and emphasizing the necessity of revealing the results of the investigation to the public, and holding accountable everyone proven to be involved in the events regardless of their title or affiliation.”
Following the unrest, Iraq’s top court last week decided to temporarily suspend the implementation of Sudani’s order to hand over the JOC headquarters back to the KDP. The headquarters and two other offices were used by the KDP prior to the expulsion of Kurdish forces from Kirkuk in October 2017 when a joint Iraqi army and Popular Mobilizations Forces (PMF, or Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic) push gained control of the province.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday called on Baghdad to reveal the findings of the investigation launched into the killings of four Kurdish protesters in Kirkuk and to hold the perpetrators accountable, calling on Sudani to “be independent and impartial” in the “investigation of allegations of excessive use of deadly force by Iraqi security forces.”
As unrest engulfed the city last week, Sudani ordered the formation of an investigative committee into the deaths and injuries at the protests, vowing to bring the “negligent ones” to justice on account of the violence that transpired.
Kirkuk is a multiethnic city home to Kurds, Arabs, Turkmen, and Assyrians. The city was under joint administration before 2014 when Kurds took complete control after Iraqi forces withdrew in the face of a brazen offensive by the Islamic State (ISIS) group threatening the city.
Kurds held Kirkuk until October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces retook control and expelled Kurdish security forces following the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum. While other Kurdish political parties remain active in Kirkuk, the KDP refused to return, saying the city was “occupied” by Shiite militias.
The State Administration Coalition also agreed to “commit to hold provincial council elections on the scheduled date, next December, and hold them in Kirkuk province as well.”
Iraq will hold provincial council elections on December 18, the first of their kind since 2013. While the polls will exclude the provinces of the Kurdistan Region, they are viewed by Kurdish parties as a pivotal opportunity to regain a foothold in the strategic yet historically-disputed Kirkuk.
On Thursday, the KDP called on Iraqi authorities to return its offices in Kirkuk, insistent on returning to the province despite an Iraqi top court decision temporarily suspending the handover of their former offices back to the party.
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