Kirkuk Tensions Rise as Fateful Ballot Nears

Sectarian conflict in oil-rich Kirkuk has increased as Kurds, Arabs and Turkoman vie for control of the city and its resources ahead of a referendum to decide whether it should become part of the Kurdish-controlled region of northern Iraq.



Residents of Kirkuk - nicknamed “Little Iraq" because nearly all of the nation's ethnicities and religions are represented here - say they are being targeted by rival sectarian political groups.



The intimidation and violence is such that Sunni and Shia Arabs do not dare to go to Kurdish neighbourhoods; Kurds avoid Arabs; and Turkoman and Christians rarely move from their areas.



Kirkuk's major religious and ethnic groups blame one another for the violence that has increased ahead of the referendum, which will determine whether Kirkuk and some disputed territories close to Mosul will be governed by the Kurdish Regional Government, KRG, or the central authorities in Baghdad.



The constitution stipulates that the ballot should be held by the end of this year.



Representatives of some ethnic minority groups say they are being marginalised by Kurdish-led local authorities and are ready to take up arms to prevent Kirkuk becoming part of the Kurdish region.



Turkoman officials say several businessmen from their community have been killed, abducted and blackmailed by Arab extremists. Kurds, and particularly Kurdish parties, are regularly attacked by the militants, while Arabs claim to be threatened by what they say is a repressive Kurdish regime that controls much of the northern province.



Many are calling for the referendum to be postponed to avoid sparking further conflict.



Kirkuk has not always been so diverse. It used to be predominantly Kurdish and Turkoman, and also had smaller Arab and Assyrian Christian communities. But in the 1980s, Saddam Hussein engineered a major demographic change when he forced thousands from the two main communities to leave the city and replaced them with Sunni and Shia Arabs.



Today, Kurds hold 26 of the 41 seats on the Kirkuk provincial council, while Turkoman have nine and Arabs six.



Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, approved in 2005, makes provision for the so-called “normalisation” of Kirkuk. This calls for Arabs settled under Saddam to return to their home provinces, while Kurds and Turkoman who were expelled are to be allowed to come back.



Kurds are now returning to the city en masse to reclaim their properties as part of a repatriation programme, which is overseen by a committee comprising representatives of the central government, the KRG, Kurdish parties, Arabs and Turkoman.



But normalisation has not really taken place as intended, creating divisions, as the political graffiti on the walls of Kirkuk demonstrate. The slogans “Kirkuk is Turkish forever”, “Kirkuk is Kurdistan's Jerusalem” and “Kirkuk is for all Iraqis” are plastered on party offices across the city.



The divisions reflect the ongoing struggle for Kirkuk's identity. Tensions have increased since the fall of Saddam's regime in 2003, with minority groups claiming that Kurds are determined to control Kirkuk, which they claim is historically a Kurdish province.



Arabs and some Turkoman are opposed to a Kurdish takeover. Many also object to the way in which the normalisation process is being implemented.



They claim the Kurdish authorities are offering financial incentives for Kurds to return to Kirkuk, bolstering their numbers and possibly ensuring Kurdish control of the city in the referendum.



In the spring, the government agreed to give Arab settlers about 15,000 US dollars plus a plot of land in their places of origin if they returned voluntarily.



If, as a result of the referendum, the province is incorporated into Iraqi Kurdistan, there is a very real danger of full-scale violence breaking out here.



“The implementation of Article 140 may escalate violence in the area, and it will result in plunging Kirkuk’s residents in particular and Iraq in general into a new river of blood,” a statement by Sunni and Shia Arab tribes warned earlier this year.



Independent observers confirm Kurdish claims that it is Arab extremists who are mainly responsible for the ongoing violence such as bombings and attacks that primarily target civilian and Kurdish institutions.



Sunni Arabs in the Iraqi cabinet oppose Kurdish control of Kirkuk, as does neighbouring Turkey, which regards itself as the guardian of Iraq's Turkoman minority and is hostile towards the KRG.



While Shia Arabs and Kurdish groups are allies in Baghdad, Shia parties fear a political backlash from their own followers if they are seen to be handing over Kirkuk, believed to have 60 per cent of the country’s oil reserves, to the Kurds.



Kakarash Siddiq, director of the Kirkuk office of the Article 140 committee, said that few Arabs have applied to return to their provinces of origin. He believes Sunni extremists have warned Arab settlers not to leave the city.



Arabs are in an unenviable position, as they face intimidation from extremists among them and are have been targeted, along with Turkoman, by Kurdish security forces, whom they accuse of physical abuse and illegal detentions.



In 2005, The Washington Post reported that Kurdish police and security units had kidnapped hundreds of Arabs and Turkoman as part of a “concerted and widespread initiative” by the two leading Kurdish parties “to exercise authority in Kirkuk in an increasingly provocative manner”.



Khalid Awad, a 53-year-old Sunni Arab resident of the Huzeyran neighbourhood, said that innocent Arabs are being arrested by Kurdish officers.



"I can't move around freely during the day, and at night when I’m at home I fear raids by Kurdish security forces," he said. "They arrest people and hold them for a couple of months in prisons in [Iraqi] Kurdistan."



But Kurds have similar fears themselves. In the Kurdish neighbourhood of Rahimawa, north of Kirkuk, Sama Jawhar, a 32-year-old Kurd, says he rarely goes to Arab majority neighbourhoods. “I am afraid of abduction by Arab militants," he said.



Representatives of the Arab Advisory Council, a Sunni Arab association in Kirkuk, say that if the Iraqi government does not curb Kurdish domination and the detention of Arabs in Kirkuk, “we will begin detaining and abducting Kurds”.



Abdul-Rahman Munshid al-Assi, the head of the council, said that when the Americans leave, Arabs will fight to ensure that Kirkuk is not incorporated into the Kurdish region.



“We know [the Kurds] are strong economically and have a militia, but we won't surrender. We will defend Kirkuk, and clashes can be expected the moment that the Americans withdraw," he said.



Assi said that while he welcomed Kurds returning to Kirkuk, he opposed them doing so simply to drive up their numbers. He says he was also against the removal of Arabs, insisting Kirkuk is a city for all Iraqis.



Rebwar Talabani, a Kurdish representative in the Kirkuk provincial council, dismissed Assi’s threats as “useless, fiery statements”, warning that the Kurds would resort to violence if the normalisation process is obstructed.



"Kurdish properties were confiscated by Arabs for years. [Kurds] are waiting for justice and the rule of law, and if they don't get it they will resort to arms," he said.



Some Turkoman parties have now allied with the Kurdish parties, which have pledged to guarantee their rights if the Kurds take control of Kirkuk.



Other parties, such as the prominent Turkish-funded Turkoman Front, back the Arabs against the Kurds. Ali Mahdi, head of Turkoman committee in the provincial council, said his ethnic group forms part of the wider Turkish nation.



"If the Kurds force Kirkuk to join [Iraqi] Kurdistan by force, I am the first one ready to fight," he said.



He asserts that not all the Kurds who have moved to Kirkuk since the fall of Saddam are originally from the city. "The Kurdish parties give money to any Kurd who is ready to go back to Kirkuk to ensure that Kirkuk is Kurdish," he said.



But Foud Masoum, the head of the Kurdish bloc in the Iraqi parliament, denies these allegations.



"No Kurdish families, Iraqi or non-Iraqi, who don’t originate from Kirkuk have been settled in Kirkuk," he said. “ I challenge any party to present the name of a single person brought in from outside Kirkuk who was not originally from Kirkuk.”



To vote in the referendum, residents must show documents proving they are originally from Kirkuk.



Masoum said that many former residents of Kirkuk are reluctant to return. "We face a problem of Turkoman and Kurds from Kirkuk, who are currently living in Erbil and Sulaimaniyah and refuse to return to Kirkuk because of the security situation. They are demanding financial incentives to return to their homes," he said.



Some accuse the Kurds of trying to gain complete control of the area at all cost.



Mahdi compares the Kurds to the Baath party, accusing them of trying to assume absolute power, and suggests the US military is sympathetic towards their goals. "The American troops and consul [in Kirkuk] take a lenient view of the Kurdish attitude to Kirkuk," he said.



While he insisted that Turkoman support the constitution, he proposes that the referendum should be postponed for a couple of years and Kirkuk be made a federal province under the United Nations in order to prevent Kurdish domination.



The Iraqi army, in cooperation with US-led multinational troops, has already prepared a security plan for Kirkuk for the referendum period, said General Anwar Hama Amin, Kurdish commander of the Iraqi army in Kirkuk.



"We will stand against any violent acts by any ethnic group," he said.



It remains unclear whether a plebiscite will be held by the end of 2007.



Shia parties, such as Muqtada al-Sadr's loyalists and the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, as well as leading Sunni Arab parties in Baghdad, are against staging the ballot by the deadline, fearing that it will deliver the province into Kurdish control.



The US Iraq Study Group, meanwhile, recommends that it be postponed for a year, warning that it could spark violence in the province. Turkey too has called for it to be put back, drawing the ire of Kurdish officials.



In March, the Iraqi newspaper Azzaman reported that the referendum would be delayed beyond 2007, following an agreement between Turkey and Iraq during a visit to Ankara by Iraqi vice-president Adel Abdul Mahdi.



But Bahruz Galali, a representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan party, said in an interview that it would go ahead as planned. "We're not thinking about postponing it," he said.



Meanwhile, as the parties squabble amongst themselves, Kirkuk residents feel increasingly vulnerable.



“Party and government officials are creating a tense security situation in the province,” said Abdul-Hadi Awwad, a 46-year-old Sunni Arab.



“Arabs, Kurds, Turkoman and Christians in Kirkuk have lived together for ages, but party and government leaders are breaking their unity.”



Although Sabah Ali, a 32-year-old Kurd, insists that party rivalry has not succeeded in dividing the population.



On July 16, following a horrific car bombing, hundreds of Kirkuk residents flooded into hospitals to donate blood after urgent requests for donations were broadcast via loudspeakers.



"I donated blood to a Turkoman injured in the explosion without thinking about his ethnicity or religion,” said Ali. “In the end, he is my compatriot and a human being.”