KDP to reopen headquarters in Kirkuk

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Aram Ahmad, the administrator of the third branch of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), told Kurdistan 24 on Saturday that "KDP President [Masoud] Barzani ordered our return to Kirkuk.”

"Every day after President Barzani's order, we came to the headquarters of the third branch [in Kirkuk] and started renovating it and making it much more beautiful than before," Mr. Ahmad said.

The administrator added that at 10 a.m. tomorrow, there will be a ceremony celebrating the headquarters’ reopening.

The party’s main headquarters, which used to serve as its Kirkuk leadership office, is currently used by the Kirkuk Joint Operations Command Centre. It was formerly the Iraqi Counter Terrorism Services headquarters briefly after the events of the Kurdish referendum in 2017.

The Iraqi Turkmen Front and Arabic Coalition headed by Rakan Al-Jabouri, who has been acting as Kirkuk governor since 2017, have publicly opposed the KDP’s return to the oil-rich province.

Kirkuk, along with parts of Diyala and Saladin provinces, have been disputed territories between the Kurds and Iraqi governments for decades. Per the constitution, the status of these areas had to be decided by the local population in a referendum following the de-Arabization process by no later than 2007.

Moreover, the KDP’s central committee on Oct. 26 decided to donate one of its other headquarters in the province to the University of Kirkuk.

Read More: KDP to grant its Kirkuk headquarters to the University of Kirkuk