HRW: Kirkuk Tensions Center Around Building That Once Served as KDP Headquarters

Reports 01:57 PM - 2023-09-09

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The Human Rights Watch reported that the recent ethnic tensions in Kirkuk center around a building that once served as the headquarters of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). The building has been occupied by Federal Iraqi security forces since 2017, when federal forces seized Kirkuk in response to the Kurdish independence referendum.

 

It added that the tensions flared after Prime Minister Sudani ordered the return of the building to the KDP on September 1 under an agreement made with the Kurdistan Regional Government when al-Sudani formed his government in October 2022.
 
On August 28, Arab and Turkmen protesters staged a sit-in in front of the former KDP headquarters, calling for a halt to the handover of the building and to prevent the party from resuming its operations in Kirkuk. Protesters reportedly erected a tent and blocked the main road connecting Kirkuk and Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan Region, hampering movement between Kirkuk and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Tensions escalated with the arrival of Kurdish counter-protesters, culminating in the deployment of Iraqi security forces and possible use of excessive and deadly force to dispel protesters.

All four of those killed were Kurds, and two Iraqi officers were injured in clashes with protesters, said Lathif Fatih Farij, an independent Kurdish writer who met with families of the victims. One of those killed was an off-duty fighter for the Kurdish Peshmerga forces, Farij told Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch received reports of the arrest of journalists covering the protests but was unable to verify the number.

 

Aso Mamand on Kirkuk Events: A Headquarters is not Worth All That

 

An Executive of the Political Bureau of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) commented on the recent events in Kirkuk, stating, "These problems are occurring at a bad time, and we condemn these tensions," and that a headquarters is not worth tensions between Kurds and Arab. 
 
In a Kurdsat TV broadcast, Aso Mamand, Executive of the PUK Political Bureau, said: "Unfortunately, a dispute over a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) headquarters in Kirkuk sparked protests, which we have been attempting to resolve for several days but have unfortunately resulted in martyrs and injured today."

He stated: "We are working to find a solution with the central government so that this conflict ends and the people of Kirkuk do not suffer."

"We will make every effort to reduce tension in Kirkuk because no place or headquarters is worth the blood of a Kurdish child," he added. "Unfortunately, one party is working to instill hatred and kill innocent people." These are all examples of media backlash for electoral campaigns.

 

They are trying not to prevent holding elections in Kirkuk

 

Firyal Abdullah, a member of the PUK Leadership Council, told PUKMEDIA that the recent events in Kirkuk were driven by a political agenda of a particular party and that some misinformed journalists and some mercenaries wanted to destabilize the situation and the security of the city for their own partisan goals.

In order to prevent Kirkuk from holding the provincial council elections, Abdullah stated that the KDP was inciting unrest there.

Kirkuk, a multiethnic and multireligious city, is one of the disputed territories between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Federal Government. It has been the site of some of the country’s worst post-ISIS violence. The governorate is also home to Iraq’s oldest continually producing oilfields. Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution calls for resolving the status of Iraq’s disputed territories, including Kirkuk, through a referendum. No conclusive steps to implement Article 140 have taken place since 2005.



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