A number of Kurdish and Turkmen notables from Kirkuk’s Daquq district and the village of Bashir appealed to the Iraqi President to work on protecting their lives and possessions.
The was made during a visit by a delegation of notables from the two communities to President Salih on Wednesday (4November 2020).
A member of the delegation, Izzadin Talabani from Daquq, told KirkukNow; "We asked the president during our meeting to have a big role in resolving the issues in our city and making it secure for its residents. We talked in detail about the problems facing the region’s residents, in particular the land ownership disputes and the security issues."
We talked in detail about the problems facing the region’s residents, in particular the land ownership disputes and the security issues
Like much of the rest of the disputed areas, security has been deteriorating in the district of Daquq, where rising tensions between Arab farmers on one side and Kurds and Turkmens on the other over land ownership have sometimes led to clashes.
Izzadin Talabani said: “We told the president that these problems resurface on a daily basis. The violations that the governor of Kirkuk committed regarding agricultural lands are continuing. He [the president] mentioned the forming of a committee that representatives of the presidency, the prime minister and the Ministry of Agriculture have set up to resolve the agricultural land issue.”
Another member of the delegation, Abu-Ja’far, a Turkmen resident of the village of Bashir, told KirkukNow: "We talked about all the problems of the region with the officials in Baghdad. Initially, we met with the Minister of Justice, then we met with the National Security Adviser Qasim Al-A’raji, then we visited the President.”
Our main problems are the takeover of our agricultural lands and the deterioration of security in the region. We are the indigenous residents of the Bashir village, but the Arab settlers want to seize our agricultural lands.”
The office of the presidency says in a statement that President Barham Salih during the meeting had stressed the need to resolve the outstanding problems "based on the constitution and the will of the people of Kirkuk, away from marginalization and the policy of imposing the status quo."
