Kurdish PM in Kirkuk to discuss joining province to autonomous region

Kirkuk  (IraqiNews.com) A Kurdish delegation has arrived in Kirkuk province on Monday to discuss joining the disputed city to the autonomous region, reports  have said.

The delegation, headed by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani, headed directly to the Kurdish Democratic Party’s office in Kirkuk, and is slated to hold a meeting on joining Kirkuk to Kurdistan’s administration, according to Mawazin News.

Kirkuk, a region of a mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkmen ethnicities, is one of a few territories to which Baghdad and Erbil claim sovereignty. Last month, the Arab-dominated Iraqi parliament decided to remove Kirkuk governor Najm al-Din Karim for his blatant support for holding a vote in the province on Kurdistan’s independence from Iraq.

Kurdish authorities say 92 percent of voters supported independence from Iraq during the referendum held on September 25th.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had vowed to impose government control over disputed areas based on the constitution. Kurdish leaderships have, meanwhile, vowed to defend Kirkuk’s “Kurdish identity” by all means.

Kurdistan gained autonomous governance after the 1991 war, but is still considered a part of Iraq. The region was created in 1970 based on an agreement with the Iraqi government, ending years of conflicts.