Kurdish Districts Demand Return to Kirkuk

Residents of districts that were once part of Kirkuk are lobbying to be reincorporated into this multi-ethnic city.

The four districts of Kalar, Kifri, Chamchamal and Doozkhurmatoo were separated from Kirkuk in 1975 and 1976 by the Baathist government under plans to reduce the city’s Kurdish population.

Kalar and Chamchamal were annexed to the Sulaimaninyah governorate, while Kifri was added to Diyala province and Doozkhurmatoo was given to Salahaddin governorate.

Now residents say under Article 58 of Iraq’s Transitional Administrative Law - which calls for those who lost out in the Arabisation of Kirkuk to have their cases addressed - they deserve to be returned to Kirkuk, where they belong.

“We are Kirkukians,” said Azhee Mariwanee, a 23-year-old resident of Kalar. “We have been wronged and it is the duty of the Iraqi government and the Kurdish political leadership to solve this problem.”

Since the 1991 Kurdish uprising, the Sulaimaniyah governorate has controlled Chamchamal, Kalar and Kifri. Sulaimaniyah is the capital of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan-controlled portion of the region.

But Doozkhurmatoo is still under the administration of the Iraqi national government.

Ethnic tension in Kirkuk, which is claimed by Kurds, Arabs and Turkoman, have risen since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime. And violence has escalated since Kurds won a majority of seats on the governorate council, which sparked Arab and Turkoman protests.

Kurds were deported from Kirkuk as part of the former regime’s Arabisation policy, but thousands were allowed to return after Saddam’s ouster, in line with Article 58.

Many Kurds have long demanded that Kirkuk be part of Iraqi Kurdistan and put under their administration, which has also raised tensions.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have delayed fully implementing Article 58, saying the issue is too complicated and needs more time to be resolved.

Because of the delicacy of the situation, Kirkuk deputy governor Sidiq Saeed said former districts of the city should only be reincorporated in accordance with agreements and the law.

“We can’t take a unilateral decision on this,” said Saeed, a Kurd. “We are concerned if this is done without the law, we might lose Kirkuk altogether. So we want it to be done according to Article 58 and have the issue later put to a vote in a referendum.”

Nonetheless, there is informal cooperation between Kirkuk and its former districts on issues of administration.

“If they need policemen and civil servants, we provide them,” said Saeed.

Residents of these districts say they won’t be satisfied until they are back within the folds of Kirkuk.

Reflecting the view of many Kurds in the region, Muhammed Omer Kaka, a journalist in Chamchamal, said he doesn’t have faith in the issue being resolved, since past negotiations between Kurdish politicians and Iraqi government leaders failed to produce a result.

“But the Kurds will never compromise on Kirkuk,” he said.

Wirya Hama Tahir is an IWPR trainee in Sulaimaniyah.