The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) signed a four-year agreement on 4 March that includes measures to speed up the formation of the new Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraqi Kurdistan. Saadi Pira, a spokesperson for the PUK, was quoted as saying that in Kirkuk “there will be work towards normalising the [unnatural] situation in the disputed territories and preserving the constitutional rights of Kurdistan. They will also push for the implementation of Article 140 [of the Constitution], which calls for a referendum on whether Kirkuk should remain an Iraqi province or join the Kurdistan Region.” Even before the agreement, the PUK continued to insist that the governor of Kirkuk should be a Kurd affiliated to the PUK as long as the party had won the majority of Kirkuk seats in the Iraqi parliament. The Turkmens and Arabs disagree, insisting that the situation in Kirkuk should remain as it began 16 October 2017. Kirkuk is the capital of an oil-rich province 248 km north of Baghdad, and it has been described as a “political powder keg.” However, the population is refusing to shake this powder keg or cause it to explode as a result of the manipulation of the situation by one political party without agreement among the others, especially on the governor issue. Rakan Al-Jobouri, the acting governor of Kirkuk, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the Kurds were still the majority of the Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC), despite recent obstacles. Among these had been threats to arrest the Kurdish chairman of the Council if he enters Kirkuk because of the arrest warrant against him and other Kurdish officials after their participation in the Kurdish independence referendum in Iraqi Kurdistan in September 2017. The next governor of Kirkuk should be elected or approved by the KPC in Kirkuk, according to the Iraqi Constitution. Al-Jobouri added that the governor issue needed agreement between the two major Kurdish parties and there could be complications if a Kurdish governor was assigned to Kirkuk. “The parliamentarian committee that includes representatives of the different components of Kirkuk is still far from agreement,” Al-Jobouri said, adding that “the reason is that the Turkmen and the Arabs are refusing any proposal before a balance is achieved in the public sector of 33 per cent of the region's major components of Turkmen, Arabs and Kurds.” “The Arabs and Turkmen are demanding the withdrawal of Peshmergas military forces from the three areas related administratively with Kirkuk where they located now,” he added. The three areas are the towns of Qara Henjir 35 km northeast of Kirkuk, Shiwan 30 km north of Kirkuk and Serkelan, called Al-Quds before 2003, 40 km northwest of Kirkuk. There is a rich oil field in the third area, where the Kurds have controlled 18 oil wells since 2007, according to Al-Jobouri, who said that the revenue from the oil did not go to Baghdad. Al-Jobouri refused requests from Kurdish officials to return Peshmergas to Kirkuk because of the bad security situation there, telling the Weekly that “since the imposing law operation of October 2017, Kirkuk has not seen any political crimes such as assassinations, kidnappings or blackmailing. Current crimes are simply criminal, and 99 per cent of the criminals have been arrested.” “The solution to Kirkuk needs time,” said Torhan Al-Mufti, general-secretary of the Commission for Coordinating among the Provinces, adding in comments to the Weekly that “time will show that the majority of the problems were political, not among the people, and sooner or later the Kirkuk politicians will bow to the deamnds of the different components of Kirkuk that have always sought peaceful coexistence.” “I know that this will take place as a result of my work that makes me meet personalities from Kirkuk's different ethnicities, religions and sects,” Al-Mufti added. Responding to the joint announcement of the PUK and KDP agreement, the Turkmen and Arab parties issued their own announcements. “The Kirkuk issue cannot be solved by narrow agreements among the political parties. It is an issue of the Iraqi nation,” said Modhahir Taha Tisinli, spokesperson of the Al-Hak National Turkmen Party. “Kirkuk is the cornerstone of the settlement not only in Iraq but also in the whole region, so any agreement between two political parties or NGOs cannot decide the future of a province that should be decided by its own people,” he added. Mohamed Mahdi Al-Bayati, a Turkmen politician and leading personality in the Badr Organisation, told the Weekly that Prime Minister Adil Abdulmahdi wanted the situation in Kirkuk to continue as it was in October in 2017, adding that “we, a group of Turkmen politicians, met special representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert to discuss the situation in Kirkuk and ensure that our rights should be preserved in the so-called disputed areas. She listened to us very carefully.” Al-Bayati met also Saad Harbiyah, commander of the Joint Operation Command in the Kirkuk Province, who confirmed that this would be responsible for security in Kirkuk under the orders of the commander-in-chief of the Iraqi Armed Forces.
