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Iraq: Tensions mount in Kurdish region
10.10.2008
Nizar Latif for The National
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October 10, 2008
KHANAQIN, Northern Iraq, outside Kurdistan
region, — The streets are quieter now, the boiling
tensions of a month ago have faded. But they have
not disappeared entirely and remain, simmering away,
not far beneath the surface.
In the late summer it looked as if the struggle for
power between Kurds and Arabs in Khanaqin could
break out into open warfare.
Kurdish soldiers,www.ekurd.net
the Peshmerga, were
controlling this city 150km north-east of Baghdad
and the Iraqi government decided to send in its own
troops to take charge. There was a standoff and
fevered talk of Arab Iraqi troops going to war with
Kurdish Iraqi troops – a nightmare scenario.
That was averted – or at least postponed – when Arab
and Kurdish leaders reached a compromise that meant
neither force stayed in the city, leaving security
up to locally recruited police. |
A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter guards his position in
the north-eastern town of Khanaqin 150km from
Baghdad |
Having stepped back from the brink, however, many
fundamental issues remain unresolved. The Kurdish
authorities insist Khanaqin is a Kurdish town and
should be part of their autonomously run northern
zone. Arab Iraqis in Baghdad insist it must remain
part of the centrally administered area, and accuse
the Kurds of discriminating against its Arab
minorities.
In the centre of this nondescript town of some
150,000 people, a Kurdish resident who asked to be
named only as Barshad said it would never submit to
Baghdad’s control.
“There are equal rights here between the Arabs and
Kurds,” Barshad, 32, said. “The Kurds are not trying
to claim the whole of the city and push Arabs out.
“But we are the majority and do not want to be under
the control of the Iraqi government. We are Kurdish,
we have a different language and culture and we will
stand against attempts by the government to control
us here.”
A majority of city residents apparently share those
sentiments. Kurds staged a large public
demonstration against the Iraqi government’s plans
to send in troops.
However, members of the city’s Arab and Turkoman
minorities said they felt under threat from the
Kurds and were treated as second-class citizens.
Few were prepared to talk openly about it, but in
the Kahrnez neighbourhood,www.ekurd.net
Abu Ahmad Turkmani said
problems have been on the rise.
“There are only eight Turkomen households here now,”
he said. “We’ve been pushed into a corner. Not
openly but in quiet ways. I’m a trader and have a
much harder time of things than Kurds in the same
business.”
The 45-year-old merchant claimed that while Kurds
faced few obstructions from the local authorities,
he was constantly facing hold-ups and inspections by
the Asaiysh, the Kurdish secret police.
“I’m always getting them coming round to inspect my
merchandise and they’ll say it doesn’t have the
right permits, or is not valid, even though I source
it from the same suppliers as the Kurds.”
In terms of business, he said, the situation was
easier under Saddam Hussein, who carried out a
forcible migration policy in such towns as Khanaqin,
pushing in Arabs and pushing out Kurds.
Mr Turkmani said Kurds and Arabs were living in an
unstable peace, pointing to a spate of bombings and
murders. “There are problems here between Arabs and
Kurds,” he said. “There are killings, there is a
competition for power here.
“Years ago there were more Arabs but many of them
have left. These are not problems between the
ordinary citizens. It’s something that comes from
the political parties. All any of us want is to live
quietly and peacefully and to have work.”
He was adamant that Khanaqin, a city with valuable
oil resources, should fall under the auspices of
Baghdad, not the Kurd’s administrative capital,
Erbil.
“The minorities here want to be part of Iraq, not
part of Kurdistan. Only with the central government
will our rights get protected.”
Similar contests are being played out in other towns
along the frontiers between the Kurdish and Arab
zones. There is no clear border and ethnically mixed
towns, such as Khanaqin and Jalawla in Diyala
province, are often volatile. Kirkuk is the most
obvious, high-stakes example. It is the richest,
biggest city under dispute.
The United Nations has been drafted to come up with
power-sharing recommendations and,www.ekurd.net
although the issue of
Kirkuk is still under consideration, the UN has said
some smaller contested areas claimed by the Kurds
should, in fact, stay outside of Kurdish Regional
Government hands.
In Khanaqin, the situation remains uneasy. And it is
not without its unexpected complexities. One Kurdish
resident, 25-year-old Ahmed Abbas, said he was tired
of Kurdish political parties trying to claim the
area.
“Arabs and Kurds have lived here without too many
problems for years,” he said.
“The Arabs haven’t tried to take over the town but
the Kurds have. I’ve lived in Khanaqin all my life
and now that the Kurds out of Erbil want to take
over they treat the local Kurds as second class. The
Kurds have been forcing Arabs from their homes and
that’s not right. They just want a Kurdish
monopoly.”
Politicians were more interested in personal
prestige than the real interests of locals, he said,
insisting Khanaqin should be under the authority of
Baghdad.
“This is an Iraqi city, and our government is in the
capital.”
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
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