Multi-ethnic Jalawla: A town that can only be protected by its people
Shafaq News / The file of the disputed area of Jalwala, located 70 km northeast of Baquba, remains the core of many questions in all popular, political, and community circles. Evidently, the town lacks stability, security, and social peace despite several security plans and multiple security formations.
Since the Peshmerga withdrew from Jalawla and the disputed areas in Diyala in 2017, those areas have become the arena of armed operations and attacks targeting security forces and agricultural villages, particularly in the northern part of the city, due to security gaps that emerged after the Peshmerga's withdrawal, as well as the lack of security coordination between federal and Kurdish forces.
Political conspiracy
Khalil Khudadad, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (P.U.K.) in Jalawla, attributed the security tension in Jalawla to plots aimed at keeping Jalawla under security disturbances, for political and demographic purposes aimed mainly at the Kurdish component.
Khudadad criticized the marginalization of the Peshmerga forces, which provided some 200 martyrs during the liberation of Jalawla in 2014, as well as 154 Kurdish martyrs who fell inside the city for sectarian and terrorist reasons.
Khudadad pointed that the solution to the security situation in Jalawla is purely political. He also indicated that the federal government wanted to keep the situation as it is now.
The Kurdish leader said that the joint security coordination agreement between the ministries of defense and Peshmerga are nothing but a dead letter, despite the need to involve the Peshmerga to maintain the security in Jalawla, activate joint coordination on the ground, and address security gaps that have become shelters for terrorists.
National and social coordination
Abbas Mahmoud, a member of Khanaqin's Organizations Center of the P.U.K., called for including the Kurdish component to achieve security stability in Jalawla and the other regions cut from the Kurdistan Region.
Mahmoud told Shafaq News agency that the decision to addressing this file by troops from outside Diyala and Jalawla needs to be reconsidered as all components should be fully involved in maintaining security and political stability, "We – the Kurds- have the keys to solutions and coordination between all components and tribes in Jalawla and all other areas north of the Hamrin Mountains.
He also stressed the adoption of coordination and social participation of all Iraqi components to address terrorist threats and places where terrorists mobilize in security gaps between federal and Peshmerga forces.
"Without marginalizing any component, Jalawla's people capable of maintaining security and banish the nightmares of terrorism, death, and security anxiety," Mahmoud said.
Internal terrorism
Diyala's Kurdish Democratic Party (K.D.P.) chief, Shirko Tawfiq, revealed the presence of terrorist parties inside Jalawla responsible for security chaos and terrorist operations affecting all society's segments for demographic and national purposes.
He revealed that ISIS militants were displaced in 2014 to Diyala areas instead of khanaqin for fear of being caught by the security forces.
Tawfiq stressed that those ISIS militants fought the Peshmerga and the army in the past, and returned after the liberation of Jalawla under other titles and names. They are now managing all terrorist attacks and operations in Jalawla targeting civilians and farmers, to force them to flee and dominate their territories within systematic schemes.
He also pointed that there are parties in Jalawla that practice security and political sabotage for personal, electoral, and demographic objectives and interests.
Tawfiq called for clearing Jalawla from the militants who rendered the town a hellhole that claims innocent lives every day.
He stressed the need to activate security coordination between federal forces and the Peshmerga practically and effectively and maintain peaceful and national coexistence in Jalawla to restore its glory as a city representing a small multi-ethnic Iraq.
Jalwala was freed from ISIS six years ago. However, the manifestations of war are still visible on its streets, with thousands of homes destroyed and a lack of compensations provided to the town's residents.
Jalawla is a sub-district of the Khanaqin district within Diyala governorate and is one of the disputed areas per the Iraqi Constitution.
The town's Arabs call it "Jalawla", its Kurds call it "Kolala", while its Turkmens call it "Kargan".
Jalawla became a sub-district in 1958, with a population of about 70,000. It is located 70 km north of Baquba, the center of Diyala governorate.
The sub-district is a disputed area between Erbil and Baghdad and has been experiencing continuous security tension since late 2017 due to the withdrawal of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces from it, as well as its location within the area of Hamrin, which remains a major stronghold of armed groups.
