The governor of Kirkuk in northern Iraq said early Sunday that a decision to hand over a building used by the Joint Operations Command forces in Iraq to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was postponed following protests in the region.
Governor Rakan Saeed al-Jabouri said in a statement on Facebook that the issue of transferring the building in Kirkuk used by forces loyal to the central government to the KDP was postponed as a result of his telephone call with Prime Minister Mohammed S. Al Sudani. Al-Jabouri said he met protesters opposing the handover in front of the building and told them about the Al Sudani 's postponement order, whereupon the protesters decided to pack up their tents, end their protest and open the blocked road.
The tents set up in front of the headquarters started to be removed by demonstrators.
Kirkuk Police Department spokesperson Amir Nuri told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the death toll in the incidents has risen to three, and at least nine others were injured during protests demanding the reopening of a highway linking the city to Irbil, the seat of Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Iraqi Chief of General Staff Abdel Emir Yarallah arrived in Kirkuk amid the violence and held a security meeting with officials at the building. The Kirkuk Governorate said the meeting was attended by Yarallah, as well as the governor and army, police and intelligence officials.
Last week, protests broke out in Kirkuk against a government decision to hand over the building to the KDP
Peshmerga forces of the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) were deployed to bases evacuated by the Iraqi army in Kirkuk following the emergence of the Daesh terrorist group in 2014. In 2017, Iraqi government forces entered Kirkuk, ending the Peshmerga presence in the city.
Speaking in Tehran on Sunday during a news conference with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that they were worried about incidents in protests that ended up with fatalities. He said Kirkuk was "a small model" of larger Iraq and its stability and peace affect peace and stability in entire Iraq. "We view Kirkuk as a symbol of the culture of peaceful coexistence," he said, referring to the multi-ethnic population of the city.
Fidan said the protection of the rights of the Turkmen community in Iraq was among the pillars of Türkiye's Iraq policy and they would continue supporting Turkmens (whose populations concentrate in Kirkuk). Fidan also called Iraqi authorities for swift action against the escalating presence of the terrorist group PKK in the city.
Fidan underlined that Türkiye attached importance to the participation of "all communities" in the city to administration. He said he discussed the incidents with officials from KRG.
