Arab Council Threatens Kirkuk Protests

Kirkuk provincial council. Photo kirkukpc.net

ERBIL, Iraqi Kurdistan -- The Arab political council in Kirkuk has threatened to hold sit-ins and demonstrations after Ramadan if Arabs aren’t given more local power by the end of the holy month.

The council wants Arabs to hold bigger share of posts in Kirkuk’s provincial council and security services. International analysts fear that the frustrations could explode into violence, or even civil war, after the US withdraws its troops at the end of this year.

Last month the Arab Political Council released a statement suggesting that the security forces in Kirkuk should be more balanced and called for early elections.

The Arab Political Council wants to divide the number of seats in Kirkuk’s Provincial Council along ethnic and religious lines, with 32 percent of the seats for Turkmen, 32 percent for Kurds, 32 percent for Arabs, and 4 percent for the Christians. Currently the Arab bloc controls 15 percent of the council’s seats and the deputy governor’s post, while the pro-Kurdish Kirkuk Brotherhood bloc controls 64 percent of the seats.

On August 4, an Arab Political Council delegation visited Iraqi Vice-President Tariq al-Hashimi and Deputy Prime Minister Salih al-Mutlaq, both prominent Sunni Arab leaders.

They called for a consensus to solve the dispute over who should control oil-rich Kirkuk, and Hashimi said there must be a political compromise that includes Arab demands.

“The imposition of a fait accompli by force, without taking into account the feelings of the other components [Arabs,] will eventually fail,” he said in a statement.

The head of the Arab Political Council, Sheikh Abdulrahman al-Assi, said the current number of council members does not represent Kirkuk’s true Sunni Arab population because Sunnis boycotted the 2005 elections, Dar al-Hayat reported.

The Kurdish governor of Kirkuk, Najmaldin Karim, agrees that Arabs are underrepresented in the provincial council as a result of the Sunni boycott and said they need “to elect a more representative body.”

“We will work to solve our differences,” he told Rudaw.

In January, the Arab Political Council called for a Tunisian-style uprising against the Kurdish security forces and demanded an “end to the repression of Arab rights.”

The uprising never materialized. A day of demonstrations in early February was cut short by a police-imposed curfew and the deployment of Kurdish Peshmarga forces to Kirkuk.

Analysts warn that this kind of tension could erupt into violence. Larry Hanauer, senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation wrote an op-ed for CNN on August 3 calling for US troops to stay in disputed areas.

“Without a neutral party present on-scene, it is easy to imagine Iraqi and Kurdish troops favoring their ethnic kinsmen in a dispute and escalating, rather than resolving, arguments.” Hanauer wrote.

But an April 2011 survey by the International Republic Institute found that 69 percent of the population of Kirkuk – including the majority of Kurds, Sunnis and Shias -- believe it’s not likely there will be violence next year.

Karim thinks that the call for a Tunisian style-uprising in January failed because the Arab community didn’t get behind it.

“I don’t think they have much support. Some people called for violence, but the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen are sick of violence,” he said.

Kirkuk expert Joost Hilterman of the International Crisis Group told Rudaw there is a need for a compromise between the different political parties.

“What each side should do - and what they owe to future generations -- is to make a genuine effort to reach across the table,” he said.