Three different groups have staged a protest in front of Kirkuk provincial office on 18 August and made three demands from the federal government.
Graduates of engineering faculties, teachers educating in Kurdish and graduates of science faculties have made demands through the protest.
Teachers educating in the Kurdish language have once again demanded that they should fall under the Ministry of Education of the Federal Government instead of KRG’s Education Ministry.
we want our registry to be transferred from the Kurdistan Regional Government to the Federal Government
Sayran Ali, one of the protestors, told KirkukNow: “Since we reside in Kirkuk City, which falls under the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, we want our registry to be transferred from the Kurdistan Regional Government to the Federal Government.”
The Kurdistan Regional Government fails to pay civil servants’ salaries in full and on time since 2015, and recently has taken the decision to slash salaries by 21%. No salary has been paid in 50 days.
Kirkuk, 18 August 2020 – one of the protesting graduates shouts slogans during the protest – Photo by Karwan Salehi
We have previously put forward three demands for the three leadership organs of the Federal Government
Sayran added: “We have previously put forward three demands for the three leadership organs of the Federal Government, but we haven’t received any replies. We can’t wait any longer; those of us residing in Kirkuk have been marginalized by both KRG and Baghdad.”
Khanda Adnan, part of another protesting group: graduates of science faculties, said: “This is the second day we come here to protest, we request to be employed. Employing us has been stopped for years.”
Khanda graduated five years ago, and she has been unemployed since then. She added: “The government advertises job vacancies on their official websites, but they only hire those who have connections.”
The female graduates remained in the protest until evening, but the male graduates stayed in front of the provincial office all night.
Kirkuk, 18 August 2020 – one of the protesting graduates – Photo by Karwan Salehi
The third group of protests, graduates of engineering faculties, have been protesting 13 times since December 2019, but have been ignored.
Inas Hamad, a graduate of a science faculty, told KirkukNow: “Our representatives with members of parliament have met with the oil minister, but we haven’t gotten any concrete results.”
He says that the minister had offered them three options for employment, but says that “all of that was just empty talk and nothing of it came to fruition.”
