Despite Kurdish protest, Hashd al-Shaabi seeks to build military base within residential area

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The attempts of a Iraqi paramilitary force, known as Hashd al-Shaabi, to build a military base within a Kurdish-populated residential area has triggered widespread protests from the residents in Kirkuk.

Also known as the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), Hashd al-Shaabi has eyed Shoraw neighborhood in northern Kirkuk Province to build its military base.

"Thousands of Shoraw residents have petitioned us to protest the construction of the Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces) military base," Gaylan Qadir, a Kurdish member of Iraqi parliament, said at a presser near the construction site, where excavators and loaders were working on digging the foundation.

Per the city’s master plan, the 600-dunam (60 hectares) area has been dedicated to a public park, Kurdistan 24 has learned.

Following the Kurdistan Region’s 2017 independence referendum, Iraqi forces and Hashd al-Shaabi attacked disputed territories between Erbil and Baghdad and ousted the Peshmerga forces that had protected Kirkuk and other areas from falling into the hands of ISIS militants.

Ever since then, the Kurdish population in those areas, including Kirkuk, have voiced concerns that a new phase of Arabization, a Ba’athist-era initiative that attempted to change the demography of that area in favor of the Arabs by ousting Kurds and Turkomen, has begun by the current administration and militia forces. 

Kurdish officials in local administrations have either been sacked or replaced with new ones, a trend the Kurdish parties have publicly denounced.

Bolstered by its increased presence, the PMF has been attempting to build a military base, informed sources, who did not want to be named, told Kurdistan 24.

“It is a form of Arabizing the neighborhood,” Sirwan Kwekha Najm, a member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)’s leadership committee, told Kurdistan 24 on Tuesday. The under-construction base is only a few hundred meters away from the PUK’s Kirkuk Headquarters.

Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk's countryside regularly protest against the local administration's facilitation of the return of migrant Arabs to their areas, which they claim belong to the Kurds. 

Additional reporting by Kurdistan 24 Kirkuk reporter Soran Kamaran