Internationals Researchers Visit PUK Politburo to Discuss the Kirkuk Issue

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A photo of the PUK officials with the international reasearchers.

Saadi Ahmed Pire, a member of the Political Bureau of the Patriotic Union Kurdistan (PUK), in the presence of Fahmi Burhan, Head of the General Board for Kurdistani Areas Outside the Kurdistan Region Government (KRG) Administration, and Stran Abdullah, Head of the Secretariat of the Political Bureau, met with Dr Zeynep Kaya and Dr Matthew Whiting, who are visiting the country to conduct a comprehensive academic study on the issue of Kirkuk and the disputed Kurdistani areas.

As part of her research, Dr Kaya is seeking to gather the perspectives of the relevant and opposing parties on the political and administrative changes in Kirkuk from the period following the liberation of Iraq, through the post-referendum phase, and into the future of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution. Her study includes the views of both the KRG and the PUK on these matters.

Salar Mahmoud, a member of the PUK Leadership Council, was also present at the meeting.


The areas disputed between Erbil and Baghdad refer are territories in Northern Iraq claimed by both the Kurdistan Region and the federal Iraqi government, governed by the unresolved Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, including oil-rich Kirkuk, Shingal (Sinjar), Makhmur, Khanaqin, and parts of Nineveh and Diyala provinces, often with diverse Kurdish, Arab, Turkmen, and other populations, making them flashpoints for political conflict and instability. The areas are widely recognised as being Arabised during the Ba'ath regime era.




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