Join Kurdistan Region or form independent region – Kirkuk's options
"We believe Kirkuk should become an independent region, and later a referendum could be held in the city," Riyaz Sari Kahiya, a Turkmen lawmaker in Kirkuk, told Rudaw.
For such a move, Kahiya believes, "the first step towards this plan should be the restoration of trust between different groups and political parties in the city." He believes that process would take at least eight years.
"We find it necessary to have an independent region for Kirkuk, but only for eight years, and then it is going to be possible to hold a referendum in this city. After the eight years, the people can decide their fate on whether to stay with Baghdad or join Kurdistan, or stay as an independent region forever," he noted.
Kirkuk governor Najmadin Karim told Rudaw that Kirkuk should in no way stay with Baghdad, but residents of the city have two options to discuss. The options are: joining the Kurdistan Region, or forming an independent region for Kirkuk for a specific, limited period of time.
"We will discuss with the various groups in Kirkuk whether they want to be part of the Kurdistan Region or have an independent region for Kirkuk for a period of time," Karim told Rudaw.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party rejected the second option, creating an independent region for Kirkuk, as they say Kirkuk must be returned to the Kurdistan Region.
"I am against [an independent region for Kirkuk] because the city's future will be lost. What merit is there in this idea? Who would run it? If this happens, it will be a huge trouble," Mohammed Kamal, a KDP official in Kirkuk, told Rudaw.
In response to comments made by the Turkmen lawmaker Kahiya, Mala Frman Mohammed, of the Change Movement (Gorran), said if Kirkuk was an independent region, its future would inevitably be at stake.
"If Kirkuk was an independent region, the Kurdistan Region would not be able to protect it when the Iraqi army all ran away after ISIS attacked it. Being an independent region will pose such threats to it. And when a threat arises, it is the people who heavily pay for it."
"In our point of view, Kirkuk is a city of Kurdistan. It is the priority of the Change Movement, and this view is clearly reflected in the [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] PUK agreement with Gorran, that areas outside of the administration of the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government], should be returned to Kurdistan,"Mohammed added.
He also said that joining with the "Kurds is an intermediate resolution. Kirkuk should not be regarded as Erbil, Duhok or Sulaimani, but only its territory should be part of the Kurdistan Region. The region should have a decentralized system, and groups including Turkmen and Arabs should have practical political and economic participation."
The Gorran official does not deny that in contested Kirkuk, Kurds have not been able to properly administrate the city. But he believes that an independent region of Kirkuk would expose it to risk.
"Kirkuk is one of the complicated problems. Kurds have been in charge of the city since 2003. But they have failed to lure the attention of its various groups to help restore Kirkuk to the Kurdistan Region."
Kahiya, the Turkmen official in Kirkuk, accused Kurds of dominating positions of authority in the city for their own benefit, and proposed that an independent region for Kirkuk would resolve such issues.
"Kirkuk has deeply rooted historical problems. For 60 years now, Kirkuk has been going through an unnatural and abnormal situation. There have been rivalries between Kurdish political movements in Kirkk and the central governments," of Iraq.
"These rivalries have negatively impacted the people of Kirkuk... During [Saddam Hussein]'s rule, Kirkuk’s demography was changed when hundreds of our Arab brothers were brought in to Kirkuk to Arabize the city and Kurds and Turkmen were evicted from the city."
But, "after Saddam was toppled, Kurdish political parties repeated the same policy to dominate Kirkuk. They brought in around a half million Kurds to Kirkuk, while the expelled Kurds from the city was not a quarter of this number they brought in later. In the meantime, Kurdish parties dominated the city and confiscated power and marginalized the Turkmen," said Kahiya, adding "that led to escalating rows and severing trust between elements of Kirkuk."
The Turkmen official added that, in spite of all these things done over generations in Kirkuk, "Turkmen parties call for a suitable resolution to make Kirkuk a realistic partnership region between Kurds, Turkmen and other elements in the city."