For the time being, what is important is to establish whether the Kurds should give up on Kirkuk following the October 16 events. I am certain that the Kurds throughout the world will argue that we shouldn’t abandon Kirkuk.
The Kurds should not bog down on what happened in Kirkuk. They should continue their endeavors for Kirkuk regardless of whether or not the city is calm or invaded. They should capitalize on any opportunity wherever it might arise to work for Kirkuk.
Following the events of October 16, the authorities of Baghdad have adopted some dangerous measures to continue Arabization. If they can get away with it, they would truly start cleansing the Kurdish ethnicity and will expel every Kurd in the city.
The upcoming Iraqi parliamentary and provincial elections will be decisive for the future of Kirkuk. We shouldn’t turn our back on the question of Kirkuk under the excuse that there is a possibility that Kurds might not be able to protect or regain their previous position in Kirkuk.
Disunity among Kurds will undermine their position in their endeavors to deal with future rivalries. It is better to be part of the process even if we are in a weak position instead of boycotting.
Unity and unanimity will help the Kurds rise again. But they have never been as divided as they are now. In the past, despite all the disagreements between Kurdish parties, the issue of Kirkuk was one that gathered them all. They were all united on the question of Kirkuk. The issue of Kirkuk now has divided the Kurdish parties. Under current circumstances, we cannot afford to wait for fate to resolve the Kurdish question.
The upcoming parliamentary and provincial elections will settle the equation in Kirkuk. This time, the Kurdish voter turnout in Kirkuk will be used as a counterweight to a Kurdish presence in Kirkuk because other parties in the city objected to the Kurdish result in previous elections.
In recent elections, it was clear that the Kurds would win the majority of the votes in Kirkuk. But this year, it is difficult to predict the Kurdish voter turnout in the city with an influx of Arabs who will also vote.
The Kurdish voter turnout will be lower in this election because the events of October 16, the KDP boycott of Kirkuk elections, refusing to reopen the Erbil-Kirkuk road because a large number of Kurdish electorate live outside Kirkuk in Bnaslawa and Erbil, and a large number of Kurds still live outside Kirkuk due to the Baath party’s ethnic cleansing.
The responsibility currently falls on the shoulders of the Kurds living in Kirkuk. They can change the equation by voting. I wish all the Kurdish parties would have taken part in this election on one single list, which would have increased the voter turnout and given a better chance for people to elect the best candidate among the candidates.
Yet still currently, people will vote the party they are affiliated with. And this will cause some Kurdish votes to be lost in the process because the lists whose votes do not reach the threshold of securing a seat will lose the votes they have won — further undermining the Kurdish position.
The KDP made a huge mistake by boycotting elections in Kirkuk — worse than this would be for the KDP to ask its fans not to participate in the election. The Kurds as a whole should have boycotted the political process in Iraq in to change the current situation in Kirkuk.
Now that this was not done, it is better to encourage everyone to participate in the election. The KDP cannot rectify this mistake now, but can encourage its voters to vote for candidates running on Kurdish lists or vote for a party list close to the KDP like the Socialist Democratic Party of Kurdistan led by Mohammed Haji Mahmud, or the Kurdistan Islamic Union (KIU). These two parties have their own lists in Kirkuk. They are likely to win a seat in Kirkuk if KDP supporters vote for them.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
