Kirkuk's Turkmen eyes governor post in talks with Kurds, Arabs

Shafaq News/ A leader of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) on Friday said that the recent meeting between the winning parties in Kirkuk's governorate council and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was a "step in the right direction".

The Kirkuk Council has faced a significant hurdle in convening its first session for over a month. The main stakeholders in the disputed province have struggled to reach a consensus on power-sharing following the first provincial election since 2005.

He hinted at negotiations with the remaining components, most notably the Kurds, to hand over the position of governor to the Turkmen.

Qahtan al-Windawi, head of the ITF's Kirkuk branch, told Shafaq News agency that "the meeting held under the chairmanship of al-Sudani on the formation of the local government in Kirkuk is "a good step in the right direction because the governorate has a special status and we must form a consensual local government that satisfies all parties."

"The governorate cannot be managed by the monopoly of any component at the expense of another," he continued.

"What we have presented to all the winning forces in Kirkuk is clear, and one of them is that the governor's position should be from our share."

"This is a legitimate right for the Turkmens because they are the only component that has not taken over the position," he continued.

On the alliance with the Arabs and the negotiations with the Kurds, al-Windawi explained that "the alliance with the Arabs is a strategic alliance because of many commonalities from previous agreement, including keeping Kirkuk affiliated with the federal government, as well as the security file, rejecting Article 140, and distributing positions between the components equally."

The ITF branch official confirmed that "negotiations with the winning Kurdish blocs are ongoing to reach a political agreement that satisfies all the parties in order to elect a governor, council chairman, and distribute the positions."

On his expectations about the date of the first session and the attendance of all blocs, he indicated that" it is difficult to hold the meeting soon, which was set for a week after the meeting of Prime Minister al-Sudani."

According to Iraq's Law for Governorate Council Elections, the elected councils should hold the first session within 15 days following the ratification of the final election results.

On Friday, a member of the Kirkuk Council for the Kurdish component, Parvin Fateh, revealed that the political blocs might hold the council's first session, before the deadline set by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

Fateh told Shafaq News that "in the last meeting with al-Sudani, we agreed to submit a list with the demands by the end of next week."

On 18 December, Iraq held its first provincial election in ten years, with more than 23 million eligible voters spread across 15 governorates, excluding four in the northern Kurdistan region.

After Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) officially confirmed the final election results on 21 January, the Kirkuk Governorate Council on 5 February failed to reach a quorum for its session as elected council members from the Arab and Turkmen components boycotted it.

A notable shift in Kirkuk's political landscape emerged in the recent elections, with Kurdish parties, including the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), losing their majority.

The PUK secured five seats with 157,649 votes, while the KDP won two seats with 52,278 votes in the 16-seat provincial council. Arab parties won six seats, Turkmens secured two, and a Christian party affiliated with Shia militias won the Christian quota seat.

In provincial elections held in 2005, Kurds secured 26 out of 41 seats, Turkmen won nine, but Sunni Arabs only won six seats as most of the community boycotted the political process.

The KDP and the PUK recently held several meetings, and they declared their intention to collaborate in official negotiations with other components to form a new local administration in Kirkuk.

Last week, Iraqi President Abdul Latif Jamal Rashid signed presidential decrees appointing governors for Baghdad, Basra, Nineveh, Babil, Karbala, Wasit, Dhi Qar, Najaf, Al-Anbar, Muthanna, Maysan and Al-Diwaniyah after completing the verification procedures by the legal department.

Notably, the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and its districts, some areas of Diyala, and the Nineveh governorates are considered contested areas between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).

Article 140 of the Iraqi permanent constitution outlined measures in which those areas could remain as part of Iraq or join the KRG. However, implementation has been stalled since 2007.

In 2014, peshmerga security forces assumed control of Kirkuk but were subsequently expelled in 2017 by federal troops after a referendum on Kurdish independence. Tensions persist, evident in a September incident last year where four Kurds were reportedly killed by gunfire from Iraq's security forces amid unrest in the province.