Controversial decree against Kurds in Kirkuk overturned

A decree by the acting governor of Kirkuk, Rakan Juburi, announced that citizens who were not living in Kirkuk would lose their food ration and Kirkuk residence cards, effectively excluding them from the Kirkuk governorate. The decision caused great concern among the Kurds, who comprise the majority of Kirkuk.

Chairman of the General Board for Kurdistani Areas Outside the Kurdistan Region, Fahmi Burhan, told KurdSat that the decision issued by the acting Kirkuk governor against the Kurds is entirely chauvinistic and contrary to all the principles of coexistence and legal and constitutional principles.

Fahmi Burhan, the head of the Kurdistan Regional Government's board for settling disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad, explained that people had lived together in Kirkuk for ages, but the recent decision disturbs that coexistence.

"We will oppose it in any way. It should be worked on at the level of the streets and civil society organizations so that no one can disrupt social and political order and coexistence," he added.

The decree was condemned by the Kurdish officials in Baghdad as well. Gailan Qadir, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi council of representatives with the PUK, told KurdSat that "after hearing the decision, they promptly visited and talked the acting governor out of it and the acting governor decided to overturn the decision."

"Iraqi Minister of Justice had told the Iraqi premier and the premier contacted the acting governor of Kirkuk to abolish the decree," the lawmaker added.

After the 2017 Kurdistan region independence referendum the Popular Mobilization Forces took over Kirkuk from the Peshmerga forces, and a sizable Kurdish population of Kirkuk left the city for the Kurdistan region.

On March 7, Rakan Juburi, the acting governor of Kirkuk, asked the Iraqi operations commander to take measures to withdraw from citizens holding Kirkuk residence cards but living outside the province. Rakan Juburi's actions were called anti-Kurdish and an attempt to Arabize Kirkuk.

The most reliable and objective census was taken in 1957; others are unreliable as they were mended according to political ends. According to the 1957 Kirkuk census, Kurds made up 48 percent of the population in the city, followed by Arabs at 28 percent and Turkmen at 21 percent.



PUKmedia/Kurdsat News