Dozens of Kurdish youth went into the streets of Kirkuk on Monday night celebrating a Kurdish election victory. The disputed city is home to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen who have a history of at times hostile relations.
In preliminary results from Sunday’s parliamentary election, Kurds won six out of the province’s 12 seats. The other six were shared by Turkmen and Arab parties. Kurdish voters were ecstatic, dancing in the streets and waving the Kurdistan flag and banners of their political parties until security forces scattered the crowd.
“Today more than 30 Humvees came fully armed to stop celebrations,” a witness who was briefly detained told Rudaw on Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.
“They stopped me and asked where I’m going. When I said I’m going home from work, they beat me up… They took my phone and deleted videos of Kurdish parties. They questioned me, asking who I voted for. They disrespected us and beat us up,” he said.
He compared what he witnessed in the city to the “chauvinistic” behavior they endured under the former Baath regime and said security forces have now set up checkpoints and are patrolling the streets.
CCTV footage shared on social media showed security forces barging into private houses.
According to Mohammad Khorshid, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) office in Kirkuk, over 100 people were detained and 38 people are still being held at two police stations, Azadi and Rahimawa. They are all Kurds.
“We have called on security forces in Kirkuk to remain calm with people and not mistreat them,” he said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi decided on Wednesday to release all those who were detained. He made the decision in a phonecall with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani, according to a statement from Barzani's office.
Rudaw English reached out to the Iraqi government spokesperson, but he was not immediately available for comment.
Kirkuk police accused the people celebrating of damaging public property.
"It is unacceptable for people to come into the streets and destroy public property and break the windows of ambulances and create chaos. There are multiple football fields they could have rented and had their celebrations there, but this was not a celebration and it is not acceptable,” Kirkuk police spokesperson Amer Muheidin told Rudaw English.
He said about 30 people are still detained and will most likely be released today.
Relations between ethnic groups in Kirkuk are tense. On October 16, 2017, after Kirkuk took part in the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum, Iraqi forces retook control of the disputed province, expelling Kurdish security forces. Thousands of Kurds fled to provinces of the Kurdistan Region and the Kurdish governor was replaced with an Arab.
The October 10 election was hotly contested in the city with each group keen to win seats and maintain their influence.
Ahead of the vote, Arab and Turkmen representatives called for a weeklong postponement of the election in Kirkuk city, saying they were concerned about Kurdish Peshmerga returning to the city and accusing Kurdish employees of the election commission of stacking the vote. The Peshmerga denied the charge and accused the MPs of trying to stir up voters.
Dilan Ghafoor, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) MP from Kirkuk who was re-elected on Sunday, said her party’s co-chair Bafel Talabani is directly handling the situation and she herself is in contact with the interior ministry.
“We will in no way accept this form of treatment and we will not accept Kurdish neighborhoods being threatened,” she told Rudaw English.
She estimates all the people arrested will be released within the next 24 hours, “but once again, this is not acceptable.”
Shakhawan Abdullah, a KDP candidate who earned the most votes in Kirkuk, told Rudaw English he will hold a press conference later on Wednesday to comment on the situation.
Additional reporting by Fuad Raheem and Hawraz Golpi
Updated at 2:29 pm
