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Separated from this
multi-ethnic city in the 1970s, residents of Kalar,
Kifri, Chamchamal and Doozkhurmatoo want to come
home.
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.
www.iwpr.net
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