ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish and Turkmen political leaders called for calm after shots were fired during election campaigning in the disputed town of Prde (Altun Kupri), Kirkuk province on Friday night. No casualties were reported and security forces quickly brought the situation under control.
Zozk Sheikh Latif, a candidate for the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Kirkuk, said the incident occurred in the Kurdistan neighborhood of Prde, a predominantly Kurdish area, after “several Turkmen youth, who I believe came from outside Prde, entered the neighborhood and started campaigning.”
“Everyone is free to campaign however they want, but it shouldn’t lead to confrontation,” he said. “Kurdish youth did not resort to violence in any way and those Turkmen who did that do not represent the Turkmen of Prde.”
The town of Prde, which lies on the administrative boundary between Erbil and Kirkuk, is ethnically mixed and often a flashpoint during elections.
Deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament and leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party’s (KDP) Kirkuk electoral list, Shakhawan Abdullah, urged residents to “remain calm and exercise self-restraint,” warning against “any actions that might drag our region into tension or undermine security and stability.”
Arshad al-Salihi, head of the Turkmen Front list and a member of the Iraqi parliament representing Kirkuk, visited Prde late on Friday. He also appealed for restraint.
“I spoke with the leadership of the [Patriotic Union of Kurdistan] PUK and the KDP and told them that those who created the complications are not our supporters,” Salihi said. “Someone within the police was a cause for escalating the complications.”
The KDP’s local office said in a statement on Saturday that it had contacted the relevant authorities to help control the situation and ensure the safety of residents.
“Last night [Friday], we warned our comrades to exercise self-restraint, not to have any harsh reactions, and to resolve everything through legal means,” the office said, adding that both sides agreed “the situation must be calmed and the problem resolved according to the law.”
Aso Mamand, the PUK’s supervisor for Kirkuk and Salahaddin, also condemned the unrest, saying that “legal measures will be taken against all those persons and parties who attempt to incite conflict in the subdistrict.”
In July, supporters of the Iraqi Turkmen Front blocked the main Erbil-Kirkuk highway at Prde in protest over administrative appointments in the subdistrict. Some protesters, reportedly armed, smashed windows and broke down doors before being dispersed by security forces. Others lit fires and briefly shut down the highway.
Protestors, among them members of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), stormed the Prde municipality building in objection to the appointment of a Kurdish woman as municipal mayor. The demonstrators demanded that one of three key positions in the town - municipal mayor, subdistrict administrator, or police chief - be given to a Turkmen representative.
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