A biweekly brief of events and news occurred in the disputed territories.
Kirkuk
- On December 24, a Kirkuk court arrested two Kurdish farmers from Topzawa village based on a complaint filed by the 11th Iraqi army division. The farmers, Sati Nasih and Soran Nazim, were accused by the command of the 11th Army Division, stationed in Topzawa, of inciting people against the army. The arrest followed multiple attempts by the 11th Division to seize the farmers’ land, leading to demonstrations by the two Kurdish farmers. Iraq’s Ministry of Defense plans to construct apartment complexes for officers on Kurdish- and Turkmen-owned lands, originally confiscated by the former Iraqi regime and given to the defense ministry in 2003. However, the new Iraqi government has refused to return the land to its original owners. Simultaneously, the court in Kirkuk granted Kurdish land to an Arab settler in Laylan, raising concerns of more seizure of Kurdish property in the province.
- On January 2, the Iraqi army entered the Kurdish neighborhood of Newroz in Kirkuk, instructing residents to evacuate their homes. Newroz, previously occupied by Ba’ath army officers, was given to displaced Kurdish families in 2003. The Iraqi army intends to evict Kurdish households and allocate the houses to Iraqi army officers. Despite an initial agreement for the military to withdraw and leave the resolution to the new local government, the military returned the next day amid protests, with hundreds of personnel deployed to expel Kurds.
- On December 25, a committee from the Interior Ministry visited Kirkuk for four days to assess the readiness of Kirkuk’s police to assume control of the security file in the province. An agreement before the formation of the current Iraqi cabinet called for transferring the security file to the police in various provinces after military control. The police commander stated that the plan would be implemented in 2024, although previous promises lacked action.
- On December 28, 2023, an ISIS (Da’esh) terrorist shot and killed two policemen in Kirkuk’s busiest market, leaving one dead and the other seriously wounded. The terrorists, masked in civilian clothes, carried out the attack on the officers in charge of organizing the grand bazaar. The Kirkuk police command, in response to the incident, issued a statement banning all forms of masks in the city, considering those who cover their faces as an “enemy.” Da’esh claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks.
- On January 3, the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO) released statistics on Iraqi oil exports for December 2023. Kirkuk’s oil exports generated $28,729,830 from 464,058 barrels exported to Jordan at a price of $61.91 per barrel. Notably, for the ninth consecutive month, there were zero oil exports from Kirkuk to Turkey’s Ceyhan port due to the suspension of oil exports from the Kurdistan Region, impacting Kirkuk’s overall exports. Furthermore, in December, no Kirkuk oil was exported through the Umm Qasr port in Basra, in contrast to the previous three months.
Updates on the Provincial Elections:
On December 31, 2023, the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) ended accepting appeals for the provincial election results from candidates and parties, adhering to the previously set deadline. The spokesperson for IHEC informed Rudaw that a total of 329 appeals were filed nationwide, with 35 complaints originating from Kirkuk, marking the second-highest number of appeals in the country.
Turkmen: In a televised interview, Hassan Turan, leader of the Turkish-backed Turkmen Front, stated, “Our primary demand in the negotiations to form the Kirkuk administration is a Turkmen governor.” Turan asserted that the election results indicated that “no community can independently form a local administration.” On January 2, Turan visited Turkey and met with Hakan Fidan, the Turkish Foreign Minister, to “discuss” the provincial election results, expressing satisfaction with the “positive” bilateral relations between Iraq and Turkey. Following the meeting, Fidan proposed that the governor of Kirkuk should be selected on a rotational basis. Additionally, meetings between the Turkmen Front and Sunni Arab parties hinted at a potential alliance against the appointment of a Kurdish governor. However, changes in the preliminary results for Turkmen Front candidates led to a division, with a previously declared winner, Mohammed Samman, accusing “interference” through “political deals” in Baghdad resulting in his removal. Concurrently, Shia Turkmens revealed that the Turkmen Front’s leader, Turan, rejected a unified Turkish list for the elections. The Shia Turkmen party aligned with the Iranian-backed al Badr failed to secure any of the sixteen seats in the provincial elections.
Sunni Arabs: The Sunni Arab victors announced the formation of a united bloc in the provincial council, consolidating their six seats won through three separate coalitions: Arab Alliance, the Leadership (Qiyada), and the Arabism Alliance (Aroba). Furthermore, Sunni Arab leader Khamis Khanjir held discussions with Fidan in Ankara following the elections.
Kurds: On December 25, Shakhawan Abdullah, Deputy Speaker of the Iraqi Parliament and a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) list, expressed dissatisfaction with the provincial election results for the Kurds, stating that they “did not meet the hope and goals.” He urged the selection of a “loyal Kurdish governor,” highlighting that, for the first time since 2005, the Kurds secured less than half of the seats in Kirkuk. Preliminary results showed the Kurds winning seven seats—five for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and two for the KDP. Sunni Arabs won six seats, and two seats went to the Turkmen. The Christian quota seat was claimed by the Iranian-backed Babelyon, in alliance with the PUK.
Khanaqin
- On January 31, Iranian-backed militias abducted Aso Ibrahim Isam, a prominent Kurdish member of the Arkawazi tribe, spiriting him away to an undisclosed location. Sajjad Arkawazi, a leader of the Arkawazi tribe, disclosed to Shafaq News that the motive behind Aso Ibrahim’s arrest and kidnapping is “still unknown.” He further highlighted the looming threat of arrest faced by senior figures of the Arkawazi tribe. Separately, on January 2, near Tuz Khurmatu, Da’esh terrorists attacked a Peshmerga unit without resulting in casualties.
Shingal (Sinjar)
- On December 26, Hazim Abbas Murad, one of the Yazidi children kidnapped in 2014, was successfully rescued and reunited with his family. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) reported that the fate of over 2,000 out of the 6,417 Yazidis abducted by Da’esh terrorists remains unknown, including eight members of Hazim Abbas’ family. Hazim, who was 10 years old at the time of his kidnapping, is now 19 years old. In a separate incident on December 28, five YBS fighters were killed in a Turkish airstrike north of Mount Shingal. The airstrike targeted a YBS checkpoint near a tent occupied by workers.