Politics

President Barzani pivotal in securing communities' representation: head of Hammurabi Coalition

"If it weren't for President Barzani's stance, we wouldn't have regained these five seats," Jawhar stated, highlighting the pivotal role played by President Masoud Barzani in securing representation for minority communities.

Kamaran Aziz 2024/05/22 13:54

Ano Jawhar, head of the Hammurabi coalition during the interview with Kurdistan24. (Photo: Kurdistan 24)

Kurdistan Ano Jawhar Hammurabi coalition Communities Represenation Kurdistan Parliament

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Wednesday, Another Jawhar, the head of the Hammurabi Coalition, expressed strong criticism during an interview with Kurdistan24 regarding the recent decision by the Federal Supreme Court to reduce parliamentary seats for minority communities in the Kurdistan Region.

Jawhar denounced the decision as a significant insult to the rights of minority communities, including Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, and Chaldeans, whose seats were slashed from five to two.

"They have reduced them from five to two parliamentary seats and have splattered these two seats into pieces across the entire Kurdistan Region," he remarked.

Jawhar pointed out the demographic distribution of these communities, noting that 99 percent of their population resides in Erbil and Badinan.

"We have about 200 villages in Duhok alone, but we don't have a single village in Halabja and Sulaimani. We have 52 language schools in Erbil and Duhok where about 7,000 students study Syriac, supported by 650 teachers and staff. Conversely, there is not a single Syriac language school in Sulaimani and Halabja," he explained.

He emphasized the lack of political infrastructure for these communities in certain regions.

"We have about 12 political forces, yet not a single headquarters of these forces exists in Sulaimani province. This is not the fault of the PUK and KDP, but rather our demographics that existed before the existence of these two parties," he clarified.

Reiterating the importance of President Barzani's support, Jawhar said, "If it weren't for President Barzani's stance, we wouldn't have regained the five seats. They had decided to annul the rights of the communities completely."

In response to the decision, Jawhar announced the formation of a larger alliance called 'The Christian Alliance' and mentioned that the group is still deliberating whether to participate in the upcoming elections.

The Iraqi Federal Court on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, approved the decision of the Election Judiciary Commission to redistribute the five seats among the provinces of Erbil, Sulaimaniyah, and Duhok.

Previously, the Federal Court had decided to reduce the number of seats in the Kurdistan parliament to 100, with the Iraqi Independent High Election Commission allocating 34 seats to Erbil.