Political powers split over Kirkuk Asayesh

KIRKUK / IraqiNews.com: The Iraqi Turkmen bloc’s call to have the Kurdish security forces Asyaesh out of Kirkuk for their “excesses against the citizens” was received with support from the Arab bloc in the province, but a Kurdish local official said they assisted in imposing security and stability in Kirkuk. “The Asayesh forces back the security authorities and their presence is necessary to maintain security and stability in the province,” Kamran Karkouti, a member of the Kirkuk provincial council from the Kurdish Fraternal List told IraqiNews.com. On demands by the Arab and Turkmen powers in Kirkuk to have the Asayesh forces out of the city, Karkouti replied that this has to be “approved by the majority of members of the Kirkuk provincial council”. Turkmen parties, during a meeting with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Friday, called to cancel the Asayesh , which belongs to the two main Kurdish parties – Talabani’s Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barazani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) – for their excesses against local residents in Kirkuk. The Turkmen call was upheld by the Arab bloc in Kirkuk as leader Hussein Ali Saleh told IraqiNews.com that the bloc would ask Talabani to disband the Asayesh forces while at the same time enhance the National Security Department in Kirkuk so they can perform their duties accurately. For his part, Maj. General Jamal Taher, the Kirkuk police chief, told IraqiNews.com on Saturday that the Asayesh forces are present in Kirkuk by means of a decision from the coalition forces, noting they helped stabilize security conditions in the city. Asayesh or Asayish (Kurdish for security) is a Kurdish organization, created in September 1993. It is referred to as “intelligence agency”, “security force”, “security service”, “security police”, “secret service”, “secret police”, or just “Kurdish police.” It is related to Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iraq. It is also funded by the CIA and acts under the command of the Kurdish National Assembly and the Kurdistan Regional Government Kurdistan RegionG). “The Asayesh have also assisted in arresting several wanted persons who belong to armed groups,” indicated Taher. Brig. Hallo Najat Hamza, the As ayesh chief, told IraqiNews.com that his forces “came to Kirkuk after the liberation of Iraq along with the coalition forces,” adding no department was set up for the Asayesh so far. The Kirkuk provincial council is composed of 41 seats. The Kurdish Fraternal List occupies 26 of them while the Iraqi Turkmen Front has eight seats, the Iraqi Republican Tajammu (Grouping) has five seats, the Islamic and Turkmen Alliance List has one seat and the Iraqi National Grouping one seat. Kirkuk, 250 km (156 miles) north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, sits on the ruins of a 5,000-year-old settlement. Because of the strategic geographical location of the city, Kirkuk was the battle ground for three empires, Assyria, Babylonia and Media which controlled the city at various times. Kirkuk is the centre of the northern Iraqi petroleum industry. It is a historically and ethnically mixed city populated by Assyrians, Kurds, Arabs and Iraqi Turkmen. The population was estimated at 1,200,000 in 2008. AmR (I)/SR 2