KDP calls for investigation of Oct. 16 attacks on Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) on Wednesday called for the Parliament of the Kurdistan Region to form a committee to investigate the events of Oct. 16 in Kirkuk and other disputed territories following the region’s independence referendum.

Three weeks after the vote, Iraqi troops and Iran-backed militias seized control of Kirkuk in an assault on Peshmerga stationed there. Tens of thousands of residents fled amid multiple reports of the persecution of Kurds and destruction of their property at the hands of the attacking forces.

In Wednesday's official memorandum, the KRG strongly urged the leadership of the Kurdistan Region's Parliament to form a committee to investigate what it called "the disaster of October 16," though it did not lay out a clear framework for doing so.

It pointed out that "the formation of a Commission of Inquiry is a requirement for most of the Kurdish political parties," and stressed the need for the Parliament to take responsibility for establishing the official record of events as they occurred.

Kirkuk is home to a mix of ethnicities, primary among them Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen, and is the most emblematic of territories disputed between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan region.

The oil-rich province was under the protection of Kurdish Peshmerga forces from the emergence of the Islamic State (IS) in 2014 and subsequent collapse of the Iraqi army until the events of October.

While campaigning in the Kurdistan Region later on Wednesday, Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi said that the era of racism against Kurds by successive Iraqi governments was "over."