Jalawla, Iraq // For many Kurds, Kirkuk symbolises the long pursuit of independence, unwelcome Arab rule and displacement.
Now in Kurdish hands, the city which gave life to Iraq’s oil industry in the 1930s, has gained further in symbolism, and Kirkuk is at the centre of a simmering dispute between the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) and Baghdad over territories marked by a complex ethnic mix and forced resettlement.
The Peshmerga — Kurdistan’s armed forces — wasted little time in moving into Kirkuk when the Iraq army fled ahead of the ISIL’s advance in June last year. Apart from halting the extremist group’s rampage, the Kurds seized the chance to take control of a city they consider theirs, after failing to capitalise on the weakness of the Iraqi government after the two Gulf Wars.
“The Kurdish leadership in Iraq felt that they had missed windows of opportunity in 1991 and 2003 to control Kirkuk; they were not going to pass up a third chance,” says Sam Morris, research fellow at the Middle East Research Institute.
The move was part of a wider advance into the “disputed territories” that are claimed by both the central government and the KRG.
The Kurds prevented ISIL from expanding northwards, and they have been valued partners in the international coalition fighting the group. But they have also lodged themselves in the Nineveh plains around Mosul, in Kirkuk and its surroundings, and towns as far south as Jalawla, so reinforcing their claim on the disputed territories.
In this latest turn of the continuing dispute, no name rings louder than Kirkuk. The governorate’s oilfields are still sizeable producers, and hold significant reserves. In July, the KRG began to independently exporting Kirkuk crude via Turkey, a major affront to the government in Baghdad.
Regardless of Kurdish boots on Kirkuk ground, the future of the city is far from certain. If the Kurds want to avoid risking a future military confrontation with the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) and allied Shiite militias, they will need to turn to politics to resolve the status of the city.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae