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The
Kurds are accused of trying to wrest control of the
city's political affairs so as to win leverage over
its oil.
Kirkuk is a city that three different ethnic
communities claim as their own
- and many suspect the disagreement has less to do
with historical rights than with the prospect of
controlling the oil it sits on.
Arab and Turkoman politicians in the northern city
are accusing their Kurdish counterparts of trying to
wrest political control here only because it is home
to substantial reserves of oil and natural gas.
That's something the Kurds - who won a majority on
the provincial council in the January 30 election -
deny, saying they are merely reclaiming their
rightful place in the city.
The various groups that live in Kirkuk, including
Kurds, Arabs and Turkoman, all assert a historical
claim to the city.
Arabs and Turkoman members have been boycotting
council meetings for weeks because of disagreements
over how key posts, including that of provincial
governor, should be allocated. In theory, the
Kurdish groups could force a decision using their
weight of numbers on the council, but they have been
reluctant to do so as that would provoke the other
groups.
Prior to the poll, the membership of Kirkuk
governorate council was balanced among the city's
ethnic groups, but the January election gave the
Kirkuk Brotherhood bloc - a coalition set up
especially to contest elections here -
26 of the council's 41 seats. Although the bloc
included Arabs and Turkomans, it was the creation of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union
of Kurdistan.
The Kurds' political opponents believe their real
agenda is oil. Although the Iraqi oil industry is
controlled centrally in Baghdad, anyone who holds
political power in Kirkuk could exercise significant
leverage.
Arab and Turkoman politicians go further than that,
voicing suspicions that the Kurds' ultimate goal is
not just to run the local council, but to get Kirkuk
incorporated into an expanded, federal Kurdistan as
part of the new constitutional arrangements for
Iraq. Kurdistan, consisting of three governorates
which gained de facto autonomy from Saddam's rule
and is now governed through its own regional
assembly, does not include Kirkuk - a city which
many Kurds think would make a natural capital city.
"Kirkuk is a major source of oil and that's why it's
a centre of disputes,"
said Ali Mahdi, a provincial council member who is
deputy head of the Turkoman Front party. "It's also
why the Kurdish leadership is trying in every way to
get control over Kirkuk under the pretext of
federalism."
Mohammed Khalil, an Arab member of the council,
agrees, saying, "Kirkuk is a tree full of fruit, and
it's having stones thrown at it. If the Kurds get
Kirkuk and its oil, I think there will be civil
war."
Khalil believes Kurdish politicians are only
pressing for a federal system for Iraq as a
precursor to a fully independent state of Kurdistan
which would incorporate Kirkuk and its oil.
But Kurdish figures in the city disagree. According
to Sherzad Adil Khorshid, a Kurdish member of the
council, his community's claims to Kirkuk have
nothing to do with oil. Instead, he said, "It is a
matter of history."
The allegations about oil are "excuses and invalid
accusations", he said.
"They have come up with these comments to stop the
Kurds winning their full rights."
Under Saddam Hussein's "Arabisation" policy, large
numbers of Kurds were forced to move away from
Kirkuk and Arabs were brought in to replace them.
Many Kurds have come back since Saddam was ousted,
and the shift in demographic has - with other
factors - contributed to some ethnic tensions in the
city. The Kurdish bloc's decisive election win was
helped by the decision of Iraq's electoral
commission to allow more than 70,000 displaced Kurds
to vote. That ruling angered many Arab and Turkomans,
who felt it tilted the ballot against them.
Yet even if the Kirkuk political class is divided on
the bigger issue of who the city and its oil should
belong to, there is agreement that the city should
see more of the profits from its local industry.
According to Arab member Khalil, the local council
has previously asked Baghdad to allocate ten per
cent of the oil revenues generated by Kirkuk to be
spent on reconstruction projects in the area, but
this request was turned down.
For the Kurds, Khorshid said councillors would
continue asking for a slice of the revenues.
Turkoman Front deputy leader Mahdi agreed that it
important for Kirkuk to see some of the money it
generated. But he cautioned that before such a
request could be put to Baghdad, tensions between
the local parties needed to be eased.
"First we should remove the chaos and then ask for a
portion of the oil revenues," he said. "I don't
think it's possible for us to benefit from oil
unless the parties in Kirkuk make an alliance so as
to transcend the obstacles."
Samah Samad is an IWPR trainee in Iraq.
www.iwpr.net
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