Mechanics and other workers in the Hasiraka Bazaar in Kirkuk protested against the relocation of their repair shops to the new industrial area, when front roof of their shops were damaged by Kirkuk local administration.
Yesterday, June 24, vehicle repair shop owners protested against a decision of Kirkuk local administration to relocate their shops to the newly built industrial area located on the road of Laylan sub-district.
Ardalan Anwar, one of the vehicle repair shop owners, told KirkukNow that, “the way the shops are built are not suitable for us, the space is small.”
Despite that, Anwar claimed that purchasing or renting a shop there is expensive, which they cannot afford because they have not been able to work due to the coronavirus lockdown in the past months.
Kirkuk local administration, with the help of the security forces, started damaging front roof of the repair shops in order to oblige them to relocate their shops.
Nawzad Ali, who has had a car parts store for 20 years, told KirkukNow that “without informing the commissioner, they have destroyed the front roof our shops, the car parts in my store are worth 100 thousand dollars, if my store had caught fire, then who would have compensated me?”
Majority of the shop owners claim that the new industrial area is far away from the city and people cannot easily access it, despite the lack of service deliver and the “unsuitable design of the shops”, adding that these are the reasons why that they do not want to relocate their shops.
Falah Yaychli, the mayor of the center of Kirkuk, in a video recently published on Facebook, says that “the security forces and Kirkuk municipality in cooperation have informed the shop owners to relocate their shops.
Yaychli said that the decision has been made by the trespass office of Kirkuk administration because “the mechanics and the car washes have distorted the desing of the city… people complain about them… the decision includes all mechanics and such workers in the city, not only those in the Hasiraka bazaar.”
He told those who protests that “all the safety and security measures are taken in the new industrial area.”
