“Turkmens do not need favors but should take what they deserve,” Hassan Turan, head of the Iraqi Turkmen Front, told protesters who had gathered in front of the governor’s office in the city to express their opposition to the appointment of Rebwar Taha of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) as the new governor of the province.
Nine out of the 16 members of the Kirkuk provincial council held a meeting at al-Rasheed hotel in Baghdad on Saturday evening, hours before a deadline to form the province’s local administration. Taha was nominated for the governorship of Kirkuk, and Mohammed Ibrahim al-Hafidh, from the Arab Qiyada Alliance, as the council’s chief. Positions were dedicated for Turkmens as well.
The Turkmen Framework Bloc, which does not have any members in the Kirkuk provincial council but has four members in the Iraqi parliament, has endorsed the new local government.
Rakan al-Jabouri, who has served as the acting governor of Kirkuk since 2017, is against Taha’s appointment.
“We will not make compromises on our rights,” he told the protesters on Tuesday.
The Iraqi Turkmen Front, which has two seats in the council, filed a complaint on Monday with Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court against the formation of Kirkuk’s local government in the session, according to party spokesperson Mohammed Samaan.
Those who oppose Taha’s appointment question the legality of the voting process.
The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), which was not included in the agreement, claims that the Saturday voting was “not legal” but “problematic” and did not go “on the right course.”
Ahead of the demonstration, the Iraqi army deployed a large number of troops to the perimeter of the provincial building and the security forces dispersed the protesters later in the night.
