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Kirkuk: The lowering of the Iraqi flag
stirred tensions between Kurds and Arabs
10.9.2007
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September
10, 2007
Kirkuk, Iraq's border with Kurdistan region,
-- The lowering of the Iraqi flag at the municipal
building in the Iraqi Kurdish city of Kirkuk about
two weeks ago stirred tensions between Kurds on the
one hand and Arabs and Turkuman on the other. While
Arabs and Turkuman insisted on flying the flag, even
over houses and stores in Kirkuk, 250 kilometres
from the Iraqi capital Baghdad, Kurds have called
for it to be lowered at all public buildings
in the city.
Leader of the Arab Obeid Tribe and Chairman of the
Arab Consultative Council (ACC) in Kirkuk, Sheikh
Abdul-Rahman Munshid al- Assy said that lowering the
Iraqi flag from some public premises or not raising
it at some parts of these buildings posed a risk to
Kirkuk's national identity.
"The flag is the base for national unity and
co-existence among the different sects and
religions," al-Assy said.
In September 2006 the Kurdistan government decide to
hoist the flag of Kurdistan
officially on all offices and
government institutions in Kurdistan autonomous
region, and banning the Iraqi national flag from
public buildings. President of Kurdistan region
Massoud Barzani said
"the present flag is not the flag of Iraq, but of
the Baath party and chemical
strikes, drainage of the marshes, putting down
uprisings and mass graves."
Turkuman Parliament Member for the Iraqi National
Accord Front Fawzy Akram predicted serious
consequences of what he described as "an illegal
act," that was likely to "jeopardize the security
situation in Kirkuk."
For its part, the secular Turkuman National Party in
Kirkuk issued a statement requesting an explanation,
calling for the Iraqi flag to be flown over the
municipality building, which symbolized the central
authority.
"I would like to ask Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki
whether lifting the flag is part of the four-way
agreement," Akram wondered.
The agreement was signed among the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP), the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), the Islamic Daawa party and the
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council (SIIC) on August 16 to
revive the political process in Iraq.
Meanwhile, Kirkuk Governor Abdul-Rahman Mostafa
confirmed that the local administration did not
attempt to remove the flag. The municipality had
replaced it with a new one as the old one wore out
due to the environmental factors.
Mostafa further criticized the media for raising the
issue in a way that "offended" the local
administration in Kirkuk.
Oil-rich Kirkuk is the centre of northern Iraq's oil
industry. It is an ethnically mixed city of majority
Kurds, Arabs, Christians and Turkuman.
To ensure Arab control of Kirkuk's oil fields,
successive governments in Baghdad have implemented a
policy of deliberate Arabization of the city.
The forced population movements and ethnic
registration changes continued under former executed
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, making it likely
that there was no longer an official Kurdish
majority in the city.
After the US liberation of Iraq in 2003, Kurds
sought to return to their original city, which
caused disputes among the three sects. Kurdish
parties have been pushing to make Kirkuk part of the
autonomous Kurdistan region in northern Iraq.
On February 5, the governmental Committee for the
Normalization of Kirkuk decided to relocate Arabs to
their places of origin
in central and southern Iraq during the Saddam era
and pay them compensation in return.
Arabs in Kirkuk protested that decision considering
it "a form of forced migration."
A referendum on incorporating Kirkuk in the
Kurdistan autonomous region is scheduled for the end
of 2007.
DPA
* Kirkuk city is a Kurdistani city and it lies just
south border of the Kurdistan autonomous region and
it is not under the full control of Kurdistan
Regional Government administration, its population
is a mix of majority Kurds and minority of Arabs,
Turkmen.
The former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein forced
over 250,000 Kurdish residents to give up their
homes to Arabs in the 1970s, to "Arabize" the city
and the region's oil industry.
Based on Iraq's Constitution a referendum is to be
held in late 2007 to decide whether the oil-rich
Kurdish province should be annexed to the safe
semiautonomous Kurdistan region in Iraq's north.
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