SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region - Turkmen and Arab leaders in Kirkuk on Wednesday rejected statements made by Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader Bafel Talabani calling the disputed city the “heart of Kurdistan” as “provocative” ahead of Iraq’s upcoming parliamentary elections in October. “Kirkuk is the heart of Kurdistan. Kirkuk is the heart of the PUK… Kirkuk is the heart of all Iraq,” Talabani said while addressing a crowd in Kirkuk on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference later that day, lawmaker Wasfi al-Assi, chief of the al-Ubaid tribe, responded to Talabani’s remarks, saying that “the Kurdish political parties, especially when elections get close, are used to and must provoke the other components with such speech.” Assi, however, said that “we are partners in administrating Kirkuk [with the PUK].” Iraq’s parliamentary elections are tentatively scheduled for October 2025. The country’s disputed territories, including oil-rich Kirkuk, remain a point of contention between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government. Iraq’s electoral commission announced on Wednesday that voters would not be allowed to change their polling location in these areas. The tribal leader said that “behind these statements, it is understood that the Kurdish political parties have the ambition to incorporate Kirkuk into the Kurdistan Region.” The al-Ubaid tribe, a prominent Sunni Arab tribe in Iraq, holds considerable influence in Kirkuk. “We affirm our principles… which is that Kirkuk is Iraqi,” Assi added. In his speech, Talabani urged people to “not describe Kirkuk as a problem… but talk about it as an example of coexistence. We will make Kirkuk the cleanest, most beautiful, and calmest city in all of Iraq.” “Kirkuk is the city of all the [ethnic and religious] components,” he continued. In a video message on Wednesday, Iraqi Turkmen Front spokesperson Mohammed Samaan labeled Talabani’s remarks as “ provocative statements,” warning that “if these types of provocative statements from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan continue, we will say Kirkuk is the capital of Turkmeneli.” The front claims a region called Turkmeneli - meaning “land of the Turkmen” - as the homeland of Iraqi Turkmen. This area stretches around 400 kilometers from Tal Afar in northwestern Nineveh province to Mandali in southeastern Diyala province, which Samaan referenced in his message. On Wednesday, Sahira al-Jubouri, an Iraqi lawmaker from Kirkuk and a representative of the Azm Alliance, one of Iraq’s main Sunni parties, also voiced concern over Talabani’s statements. Jubouri said Talabani’s “tense speech” is “inconsistent with the city's constitutional and administrative reality and constitutes an unacceptable attempt to obliterate Kirkuk's diverse identity.” During his speech, Talabani addressed Kirkuk’s Kurdish Governor Rebwar Taha, a fellow PUK member, stating that “we, as the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, have sent you, honorable people, a governor, to serve all of you, all the components.” Taha’s appointment in August was not without controversy. He took office following a meeting in Baghdad attended by nine of the 16 members of Kirkuk’s provincial council, including five from the PUK, three Arab members, and the Christian minority quota winner. Members from the Turkmen Front, the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Sunni Arab Alliance were absent. The three parties deemed the meeting illegal and later challenged the session’s outcomes in Iraq’s judiciary, but to no avail. On January 21, Iraq’s parliament voted on Kirkuk’s land restitution law, which was later ratified in mid-February by the Iraqi president. The law is currently on hold pending guidelines from the Council of Ministers on its implementation. The law was long sought after by Kurdish and Turkmen parties. In the 1970s, Kurdish and Turkmen lands were seized by the Baath regime under the pretext that they were located in restricted oil zones. The land was redistributed to Arabs, who were resettled in these areas, altering their demographic composition. Following the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, Iraq adopted a policy of de-Arabization under Article 140 of the constitution, aiming to reverse the demographic changes imposed by former dictator Saddam Hussein.
