ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdish officials and MPs are concerned that the verbiage of a federal court in Baghdad’s decision regarding the definition of disputed areas is so vague that the court’s wording could mean pre-2003 KRG borders are not respected by Baghdad. “The decision is very bad, because based on it then Sulaimani, Erbil, Duhok and other areas of the KRG are considered disputed,” Amin Bakir, member of Iraqi parliament’s legal committee, told Rudaw. Decision No. 113 was made by the court on October 29, 2017 based on the request of an Iraqi parliament member to clarify what disputed territories meant, and what territories were disputed and who had the power to determine the disputed territories. Bakir added that he believes that the decision was due to a typo and that the federal court will correct it, as it is currently doing. “We have spoken with the Supreme Federal Court, and we sent them a letter on January 17, and they are set to respond officially and rectify the mistake,” Bakir, who is also the deputy head of the Change Movement (Gorran) faction in the Iraqi parliament. In October the court issued a decision reading, “Disputed territories are those governed by the Kurdistan Regional Government on March 19, 2003.” The United States invasion of Iraq that removed the Baathist regime began on March 20. Under the previous government, the KRG administered the provinces of Duhok, Erbil, Sulaimani, Halabja and some areas in Diyala and Nineveh provinces. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi, after the events of October 16, has said the KRG has to withdraw to pre-2003 borders. The court letter added: “We are defining disputed territories, the standards by which an area is deemed disputed and the institution responsible for determining whether a territory is disputed based on the request made by Mr. Imad Youkhana Yaqu from the Iraqi parliament for the purpose of explaining the term disputed territories as written in the Section 2 of Article 140.” Yaqu leads the Christian al-Rafidain bloc and is from Kirkuk. “Based on this reading, then Kirkuk and Khanaqin are not considered disputed rather Akre, Kifri even Erbil and Sulaimani are rendered disputed,” Amanj Rahim, the secretary-general of the KRG’s Council of Ministers, wrote in a Facebook post. He was baffled by the fact that the Kurdish members of the court signed the document without any reservations. Rahim added that the second section of the 140 Article clearly considers Kirkuk to be a part of the disputed territories “After demonstrating the unconstitutionality of the decision No.113, Judge Akram Baban, member of the Supreme Federal Court, thanked us on the phone. Besides iterating the falseness of the reading, he notified us that the topic will be discussed and what needs to be done within the court committee,” Rahim added. He emphasized that the main concern stems from the fact the federal court’s decisions are supreme, mandatory, and to be abided by all branches of the government. This is not the first incident of miscommunication by Iraqi institutions. Most recently, the interim governor of Kirkuk purportedly told police in a letter on Sunday to evict the Kurdish population of Newroz and Kurdistan districts of Kirkuk. The governor told Rudaw on Tuesday that it was a misunderstanding.
