Shafaq News- Diyala
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) institutions in Khanaqin, Diyala province, will suspend official working hours on Wednesday in protest against Baghdad’s decision to separate Jalawla and Qara Tapa from the district and grant them independent administrative status.
Diyala province, northeast of Baghdad, has a population of nearly 1.6 million people from Arab, Kurdish, and Turkmen communities, and several of its districts are classified as disputed territories under the Iraqi Constitution.
In a joint statement issued on Tuesday, the institutions said the suspension —excluding health services, security forces, and certain essential departments— supports a general sit-in called by residents who reject the “fragmentation” of Khanaqin.
They described the move as backing “legitimate demands” to preserve the geographic and constitutional status of Khanaqin and other Kurdish-majority areas administratively linked to it but located outside the Kurdistan Region’s authority, affirming support for peaceful action within constitutional frameworks.
Residents have recently announced a general strike involving shops and public institutions to protest what they consider decisions taken by political parties within Diyala’s Provincial Council. They maintain that Khanaqin and its surrounding areas should not be subject to administrative changes outside constitutional procedures, especially Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which sets out a three-step process —normalization, census, and referendum— to determine the status of disputed territories between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region.
Iraq on Monday officially upgraded Jalawla, located about 70 kilometers northeast of Baquba and home to roughly 94,000 residents, from a subdistrict to a full district, granting it administrative authority over surrounding areas. In 2025, the country also approved elevating Qara Tapa to district status.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), the largest Kurdish bloc in Iraq’s parliament, rejected the separation of Jalawla and Qara Tapa from Khanaqin, voicing support for what it termed “legitimate demands,” including peaceful protest or civil disobedience permitted by law.