SHARE ON













KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region - Arab and Turkmen representatives in the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk hint at supporting a more independent Kurdistan if it secures their national rights.The head of the Arab Unity group in Kirkuk, Ihsan Muhairi, told Rudaw the attitudes of his fellow Arabs had shifted positively regarding the Kurdistan Region where they could envisage a future with “their Kurdish brothers.”“The distance between us has narrowed in many issues and if they accept us then we ask for our rights to be safeguarded within a government in which Arabs feel embraced,” Muhairi said, referring to the Kurdistan Region.Earlier last week Kirkuk’s Kurdish governor, Najmaldin Karim, told reporters that the province “needed to get away from Baghdad,” since the political turmoil in the Iraqi capital could destabilize the oil-rich city.Although just over 50 percent of the current population of Kirkuk city is Kurdish, large parts of the surrounding towns and villages are predominantly populated by Arabs who, according to the Kurds, were forcefully moved to the province to deliberately change the population makeup in the area as part of what they have called “the Arbization Process.”Kirkuk’s multiethnic provincial council last week rejected an Iraqi government call to grant local ID cards to war-displaced refugees living in the province, accusing the central government of another “tactic to Arabize” the province.The decision would have had implications for any population census that could determine the disputes over contested territories not only in Kirkuk but also across the country.Kurdish President Masoud Barzani has said the referendum, which is planned for November, will include Kirkuk among many other so-called disputed territories, according to the country’s constitution.Though Kurds are largely seen as the biggest single group in Kirkuk, they will also need the support of both Turkmen, Arab and Christian populations to secure a clear ’yes’ vote to further independence from Baghdad.“The central government shouldn’t have forgotten the Turkmen as it did in the past. There is a government in Baghdad only by name and if Erbil also disappoints us, I think the Turkmen are then entitled to self-rule,” said Taha Tunjai of the Turkmen Rights Party in Kirkuk.Kirkuk’s administrative bodies, including the governor and the police chief, are held by the Kurds since 2004 following the collapse of the Baathist rule in the country.Peshmarga forces replaced the Iraqi Army troops in the province in June 2014 after the army’s withdrawal from the area ahead of the ISIS offensive.According to the 2005 Iraqi constitution a referendum should have taken place before the end of 2007 to determine the fate and status of the disputed areas.As Iraq plunged into a bloody sectarian war since 2007, no public votes were held, partly to fend off further sectarian tensions, according to Baghdad.But Kurdish authorities say that, with these areas effectively patrolled by Peshmarga forces, conditions are ripe to hold the long anticipated referendum and respect its outcome.“There should be clear reference to the rights of other nations who want to live with their Kurdish brothers,” said head of the Kirkuk Provincial Council, Rebwar Talabani, a Kurd. “Our message is that we are committed to coexistence,” he added.