When we returned to Kirkuk on April 10, 2003, the flag brought all Kurdish parties together despite having two separate governments in the Kurdistan Region and a lack of coordination between these two spheres of influence of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
On our first day returning to Kirkuk, the Flag of Kurdistan was raised on all government and party headquarters and in every street and alley. Following the formation of the provincial council and resumption of work at government departments in Kirkuk, the Turkmen and Arabs lodged complaints to the US military that was then stationed Kirkuk.
The United States didn’t understand Kirkuk’s history and therefore sided with those protesting the flag, which led to much controversy and disagreement. The situation got so bad that an idea was proposed to ban all flags in Kirkuk and make a new flag that represents all the communities of the city.
The US military even devised some flag designs and shared them with the Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs for their input. The Kurds rejected the idea and kept Kurdistan’s flag on party headquarters to signify the Kurdish identity of the city and the Iraqi flag was put on government institutions.
Disagreements on the question of the Kurdistan flag finally died and dozens of meetings were subsequently held at Kurdistani party headquarters where the flag flew. The Kirkuk governor consequently called on the provincial council to raise the flag on government institutions and this led to more sensitivity against the Flag of Kurdistan.
The communities of Kirkuk might have finally accepted the raising of Kurdistan’s flag as de facto in Kirkuk if more time was dedicated to reach a mutual understanding among these communities. But the Kurds hurried and the matter was finally decided unilaterally.
The Arabs and Turkmen of the city continued to protest the flag and lodged a complaint to the federal parliament, government and judiciary. None of these state institutions was officially against the Kirkuk Provincial Council’s decision to raise Kurdistan’s flag. The federal court even said the question didn’t fall within the parameters of their work.
A Kurdish delegation finally visited Baghdad to discuss the problem. They both agreed it was okay to keep the flag on all government institutions except at oil companies, universities and some other places. Until the events of October 2017, Turkmen, Arabs, Iraqi and foreign delegations met under Kurdistan’s flag at the provincial council and governor’s buildings.
The flag was removed — illegally — in Kirkuk after Iraqi forces entered the city on October 16, 2017. Kurdistani parties should raise the flag in Kirkuk again in order to assert a Kurdish presence in the city and whenever an opportunity arises for them to engage in political work again.
Parties which returned to Kirkuk a week after the events of October 16 should have raised the flag immediately. They were late in doing so, although it is never late to do the right thing.
The PUK should take the initiative to raise Kurdistan’s flag alongside the Iraqi flag on its headquarters in any Iraqi province including Baghdad in order to shift the focus from Kirkuk and to reduce its sensitivity. This will also make Iraqi parties see the flag on Kurdistani party headquarters throughout the country as normal. Other Kurdistani parties should follow suit.
The KDP is upset that the PUK took the initiative on the question of the Flag of Kurdistan in Kirkuk. Following Masoud Barzani’s visit to Baghdad and normalization of relations between Erbil and Baghdad, the KDP started to work on returning to Kirkuk proudly and to undermine PUK’s position in the city. In fact, the PUK position in Kirkuk would have been undermined if the KDP had returned to Kirkuk, raised the flag, and then called on the PUK and other parties to raise it.
The PUK might have known about the KDP’s agenda for Kirkuk and therefore took the initiative. The PUK has also now paved the way for the KDP to return to the city. The KDP had previously said it won’t return to Kirkuk unless the flag is raised in the city. Now that the flag is raised there, other parties will argue that there is little reason for the KDP not to return.
The PUK raised the Kurdistani flag on its headquarters in Kirkuk in an attempt to prevent the KDP from having the initiative to do so. This was the reason that prompted the PUK to do so, rather than the constitutional right of being allowed to raise the flag or the end of Mam Jalal’s mourning.
Now that the PUK has taken the lead to raise the Kurdish flag in the city, the KDP no longer has the opportunity be the first to do so. The KDP has another card to play – conditioning its return to Kirkuk on the return of Peshmerga forces to the city. This way, the Kurds will have achieved two things in Kirkuk: raising Kurdistan’s flag and the return of Kurdistan’s Peshmerga.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
