Shafaq News – Kirkuk

On Saturday, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), called for calm after overnight clashes between Kurdish and Turkmen supporters in Kirkuk’s Altun Kupri, confirming that Iraq’s elections will proceed as scheduled.

The unrest erupted late Friday when rival supporters raised party flags, triggering verbal disputes that escalated into fistfights before security forces intervened.

In a statement, the party’s Kirkuk–Garmian branch said it had contacted security forces as the confrontation began and instructed members to exercise restraint. Coordination with other parties, including the Iraqi Turkmen Front, helped “defuse tensions,” the party added, urging all sides to preserve peace.

Altun Kupri—known as Perde in Kurdish and meaning “Golden Bridge” in Turkish—lies on the Erbil–Kirkuk highway and has long been a flashpoint in Iraq’s disputed territories. The town was the site of a 1991 Turkmen massacre under Saddam Hussein and later saw fighting between Iraqi forces and Kurdish Peshmerga in 2017.

The latest unrest comes around two weeks before the November 11 parliamentary elections. Kirkuk — one of Iraq’s most diverse and contested provinces — will be a key battleground in the elections, where Kurdish, Arab, and Turkmen parties are competing fiercely for influence.

The oil-rich province will elect 13 lawmakers, including one seat reserved for the Christian community. In 2021, Kurdish parties won six seats, Arab alliances four, and Turkmen factions two.

Read more: Iraq’s 2025 Parliamentary Elections — What You Need to Know