Washington Kurdish Institute
August 15, 2018
For the Kurds of Iraq, hearing or reading about “Kirkuk” immediately brings to mind a number of dark and terrible experiences: executions, displacement, discrimination, policies of forced demographic change, and other tragedies that occurred during the brutal Saddam Hussein regime. For most of its history, Kirkuk Province was a predominantly Kurdish area that was regularly attacked by the Iraqi government in coordination with some local Arab tribes. In fact, since the creation of the modern state of Iraq in 1923, Kirkuk and many other Kurdish-dominant areas were not only discriminated against by official government policy but also targeted with various forced demographic change initiatives. After the fall of Saddam’s dictatorship in 2003, the Kurds were pleased with and hopeful about the newly constructed Constitution, which called for the normalization of areas that suffered forced demographic changes.
However, this constitutional promise, among other legal guarantees of minority rights, never came to fruition. Kirkuk stands as the most blatant example of these broken promises, as official acts of discrimination and repression continued well after 2003.
One of the major features that has made control of Kirkuk so desirable is the region’s supply of oil reserves, leading many to refer to it as “the city of the black oil.” In contrast, however, the people of Kirkuk refer to their region as a “dairy cow” because of the multitude of factions who have regularly stolen the area’s wealth without returning any benefits to the local people. In fact, it was this “dairy cow” that helped feed the British military during World War II and that nourished the forces of Saddam’s Iraqi dictatorship during its war with Iran in the 1980s. Moreover, throughout Iraq’s entire history, Kirkuk’s resources contributed greatly to the country’s economy, yet with little benefit going to the local people of the oil-rich area.
And despite the fact that the Kurdish political parties have won every Federal and local election in Kirkuk since 2003, the province’s status has never been addressed. Thus Kirkuk’s status remains in limbo even today, with its people forced to continuously play Baghdad’s game and please the Federal authorities who hold the region’s fate in their hands. So today remains just as it was in time past: Kirkuk’s Kurds are experiencing the same issues they faced under the Saddam regime and earlier regimes.
So how did Kirkuk get to this point?
One date stands out most prominently in answer to this question: October 16, 2017. On that date, following the independence referendum held by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) of Iraq, the Iraqi army in conjunction with Iranian-backed Shia militias attacked Kirkuk and drove out the Kurdish Peshmerga forces — the same Kurdish forces who valiantly defended Kirkuk from ISIS and other jihadist forces. The attack was a premeditated plot, with the blessing of the U.S. and other powers who remained silent, against Kurdish aspirations for independence. Despite its ties to the Kurds of Iraq dating back to 1991, the U.S., through its silence and inaction, decided to ally with Iranian policymakers on the fate of the Kurds in Kirkuk and Iraq overall.
During this attack and occupation, thousands of Kurds fled the province fearing detention, torture, and execution. In addition, hundreds of Kurdish homes in Kirkuk and the Kurdish town of Tuz Khurmato in Sellahattin Provine were burned down by Iranian– and Turkish-aligned forces. These occupying forces also began implementing policies in the area similar to that of the Saddam regime. For example, during Saddam’s reign Kurdish lands, especially farmlands, were stolen and provided to Arab tribes. Nearly 1,120,000 acres of farmland belonging to Kurds were given to Arab tribes between 1975 and 1995. After the fall of Saddam, most of these Arab tribes fled these areas, but the Iraqi government did next to nothing to normalize the situation nor to return these properties to their rightful Kurdish owners. In fact, the Iraqi government neglected the people of Kirkuk, failing to provide proper access to basic services like water and electricity. And with the October 2017 occupation of Kirkuk, many Arab tribes returned to steal back these Kurdish lands.
Since October 2017, not only were thousands of Kurdish citizens displaced, but there were also many Kurdish elected officials and government workers who were wrongfully removed from their positions. Kirkuk’s appointed administration has removed several Kurdish directors of departments and replaced them with non-Kurds (actions eerily similar to that of the Saddam regime). Kurdish directors and other officials were removed and replaced by non-Kurds in the Departments of Agriculture, Health, Water Resources, and Commerce. For example, 23 Kurdish officials were removed and replaced by non-Kurds in the Department of Health alone. Many local Kurdish leaders were also barred from returning to their posts. Both the Kurdish mayors of Dibis (the most disputed district in Kirkuk Province) and Daquq were removed, replaced by non-Kurds, and banned from returning to their home regions. Even the Kurdish Mayor of Kirkuk (who was replaced with an Arab politician) was forced to flee his post under threats of violence and assassination.
The security situation in Kirkuk has also become highly sectarian, with Iraq’s Counter-Terrorism Units (CTU) running security for the province. The current High-Security Committee does not include a single Kurdish official. This is in stark contrast to the committee’s previous diverse composition, which comprised representatives from all local religious and ethnic groups. Yet as it stands now, the CTU readily harasses Kurdish residents on a daily basis through random checkpoints and raids. Meanwhile, the most dangerous areas of the district (Haweja, in Kirkuk’s southwest region) are left mostly to the whims of ISIS fighters who exert unchallenged control over the lands after nightfall.
In the midst of this all, the U.S. continues to turn a blind eye, as Iranian-backed forces dramatically alter the social fabric of the province, blatantly smuggle Kirkuk’s oil into Iran on a daily basis, and steadily implement destabilizing policies that are only beneficial to the Iranian regime. The biggest losers in this remain the people of Kirkuk. For the people of Kirkuk, every day is one filled with oppression, displacement, and tragedy. For the people of Kirkuk, the future appears dark and uncertain. For the people of Kirkuk, every day is the day of October 16, 2017.