Kurdistan flag to fly in Kirkuk with Iraqi one until future of province determined: Kirkuk Party

KIRKUK, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – The decision to raise the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi one on Kirkuk’s public offices is already made, and the Kirkuk Council will not discuss the matter anymore, said a Kirkuk official on Monday.

After a majority vote in late March 2017, the Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC) decided to raise the Kurdistan flag alongside the Iraqi one on all government offices in the province.

Following the decision, some local Turkmen issued a lawsuit in the Iraqi federal court in Baghdad against the head of the KPC Rebwar Talabani.

Recently, the court decided to take down the Kurdistan flag on the government buildings in Kirkuk by referring to the Transitional Administrative Law (TAL) for the 2004 transitional period in Iraq.

The document is outdated and was eventually replaced by the Iraqi Constitution in 2005 with the approval of 80 percent of the people in the country.

On Monday, a Kurdish member of the Brotherhood bloc in the KPC, Ahmed Askari, said they would appeal the decision to the court.

He also insisted the topic would no longer be discussed during the KPC’s future sessions.

“We have made our decision that the Kurdistan flag will be flying alongside the Iraqi flag on all government buildings until the future of the province is determined,” Askari stated.

“Since it is a disputed territory, it requires the presence of both the Iraqi and the Kurdistan Region flag for now,” he noted.

“It is a decision we will never regret,” Askari added.

The Brotherhood bloc consists of Kurdish parties with some Christian, Turkmen, and Arab members.

Kirkuk is a diverse province consisting of Turkmen, Arabs, and Christians with a Kurdish majority.

The oil-rich province has been under the administration of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) since 2014 and is included in Kurdistan’s referendum next month.

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany