Kirkuk’s Arab, Turkmen residents protest nomination of Kurdish governor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Demonstrators took to the streets of Kirkuk on Friday, against the proposition of a Kurdish candidate for Kirkuk governor by the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Thursday.

   
The predominantly Arab and Turkmen protestors held Iraqi flags and chanted in support of acting Governor and Kirkuk native Rakan Saeed Al-Jabouri, a Sunni Arab. Some held posters reading “Daesh [the Islamic State, ISIS] and separatists are the same,” referring to people who voted for Kurdish independence in the September 25, 2017 referendum, while another chanted “we are Baathist, we are Saddamis.”

“I have been invited by some agencies in Kirkuk to participate in the protests,” Mazin Al-Aali a protester who participated in Kirkuk protests on Friday told Rudaw English.

When asked which agencies, he named Majlis al-Arabi (the Arab Council) in Kirkuk, a group whose stance has historically been one against Kurdish dominance of the city.

“My main aim in participation was to refuse the return of the Peshmerga forces back to our city, since Kirkuk is an Iraqi city that a home is for everyone,” he added.

KDP and PUK officials announced their agreement on the nomination of Tayb Jabar Amin, a Kurd, for the position of Kirkuk governor in a joint press conference on Thursday.

Kirkuk, a disputed territory claimed by both Erbil and Baghdad, came under Peshmerga control in 2014 after the rise of ISIS. Under Kurdish security force administration, the city was governed by Najmaldin Karim, a Kurd.

Following the 2017 independence referendum, the city was retaken by federal troops, with the assistance of the predominantly Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces, PMF) on October 16, 2017. Then Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi recommended the sacking of Karim to parliament and the handover of the position to his deputy, Jabouri.

Senior regional and national political figures have called for peaceful and diplomatic means to dispel tensions in the province, which has recently been plagued with violence including car bombs and mass agricultural arson.

 
Abadi, the head of al-Nasr coalitionin the Iraqi parliament, released a statement on Friday urging the people of Kirkuk to avoid violence and solve the city’s issues through peaceful dialogue.

“A constitutional solution is what Kirkuk needs at the moment to make sure the rights of every ethnic and religious group in the city are well preserved,” he said.

Masoud Barzani, the former president of the Kurdistan Region, then released a statement on Saturday calling on Erbil and Baghdad to find concrete solutions for Kirkuk.

Barzani urged all parties to capitalise on the “very peaceful atmosphere” of current Erbil-Baghdad relations.

“Kirkuk’s issues should be solved through peaceful dialogue between the Kurdistan Region and Baghdad, as well as concerned parties in Kirkuk,” he said.

“Kirkuk security and stability should be preserved under the Iraqi constitution and current instability in Kirkuk should be ended.”

Ershad Salihi, head of the Kirkuk Turkmen Front party and an MP in the Iraqi parliament, aired some similar sentiment to that of Friday’s protestors.

“We ask the two Kurdish political parties, KDP and PUK, to kindly stay away from Kirkuk,” he said in an official Facebook post on Thursday addressing the KDP-PUK nomination.

Salihi’s comments are consistent with what has been the Turkmen Front’s stance since October 2017, a refusal of the return of Peshmerga forces to Kirkuk and of the election of a Kurdish governor for the city.

“During 2018 [Iraqi parliamentary] elections, Kurds committed lots of fraud and stuffed Kirkuk’s ballot with fake votes, causing the Turkmen Front to lose a lot of votes. However, we believe that Turkmen parties were the main winners in the 2018 Iraqi elections,” said Mardin Bokaya, a Kirkuk Turkmen Front politburo member.

In last year’s election, Kurdish parties took six out of a possible 13 seats, Turkmen three, and Arabs three, while Christians were given their minority-quota seat.

“We insist on electing a Turkmen to be the next governor, and we are ready to negotiate with Kurds on those bases,” he added.

A joint KDP-PUK delegation is planning a visit to Kirkuk this week to begin dialogue with Arab and Turkmen political parties and movements to reach a solution to satisfy Kirkuk’s different ethnic and religious groups. 

“We are planning to offer the Turkmen and Arabs in Kirkuk the 2003 plan, where Kurds hold the Kirkuk governor position, Turkmen receive provisional council presidency, and Arabs get the deputy governor position,” Khalid Shwani, senior PUK leader and head of the delegation to Kirkuk told Rudaw on Saturday.