Turkmens claim head of Kirkuk Provincial Council

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkmens have the right to head the Kirkuk Provincial Council (KPC), said a Turkmen official on Thursday.

In a statement to Kurdistan24, Turkmen member of the Kurdistan Region Parliament (KRP) Aydin Maruf stated that Turkmens have agreed with Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) officials and that the head of KPC should be given to Turkmens.

“We agreed with KRG and Kurds in Kirkuk that the Kirkuk Governor post will be for Kurds, and the head of KPC will be given to Turkmens,” continuing, “But yet this post remains in the hand of Kurds.”

Official statistics show that Turkmens are the second largest ethnic group in Kirkuk after Kurds.

Maruf mentioned that more than two years have been passed since this agreement, yet it has not been implemented, and the post remains empty.

“We have held frequent meetings with Kurdish officials, including KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani and KRP leadership; they all agreed that it is the right of Turkmens to have this post, but unfortunately so far it has not been implemented,” Maruf said.

Currently, Rebwar Talabani is acting head of KPC and has been managing the responsibilities over the last two years.

However, Talabani explained to Kurdistan24 on Thursday that no agreements have been made between Kurds and Turkmens in Kirkuk regarding this post.

“It is true that we had an agreement with Turkmens in 2011, but then-head of KPC Hassan Torhan [who is Turkmen] left the post and become a member of parliament in Baghdad. Since then we [Kurds] have made no agreements with Turkmens regarding the post,” Talabani concluded.

Reporting by Mewan Dolamari
Editing by Benjamin Kweskin