Tens of Kirkuk vendors downtown protested removal and breakage of their mobile cottages and carriages by Kirkuk municipality which considers the vending mobile places on the streets illegal and violation.
Kirkuk municipality has started removing the violations on February 19 to 22, the days of second lockdown in the weekend, of 50 covered tables and carriages for mobile vendors in the Grand Bazaar near Kirkuk Citadel.
Though the vendors have no permission to market their products their yet they consider it the only way of breadwinning since any years. The traffic in the afternoons pushed the local authorities to remove the violations in order to open the street for cars and pedestrians.
“When I came back to work on Monday after curfew, I saw my workplace was broken,” said Amjad Kaka, a greengrocer of Grand Bazaar. “500 KGs of my dates were thrown on the ground mixed with other products of my neighbor friends” he added.
“I am doing this business for 15 years and making the living of 10 people. That decision by the mayor was really unfair.”
“I am doing this business for 15 years and making the living of 10 people. That decision by the mayor was really unfair.”
Full lockdown was effective in the northern oil rich city of Kirkuk from Thursday 8 pm up to Monday 5 am for two weeks. Partial lockdown is imposed at night from 8 pm to 5 am every day.
Kirkuk, located 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, is an ethnically mixed province of Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Turkmen. It has long been at the center of disputes between Baghdad and the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
In October, 2017, Iraqi troops backed by pro-Shiite militias expelled Peshmarga Kurdish fighters from Kirkuk following a referendum to join Kurdistan region held by the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
Kirkuk vendors protest removal of “illegal street tables."
The local authorities say they have warned the vendors to evacuate because it was a violation of public property and streets.
Falah Yaychli, mayor of Kirkuk, said they are not standing against the locals whom make their living by selling on the streets. “We want them to do it in a civil way. They have damaged the image of the bazaar and make problems for people up to sexual harassment of women,” he said.
“We want them to do it in a civil way. They have damaged the image of the bazaar and make problems for people up to sexual harassment of women,” he said.
Yaychli said he paid a visit to the vendors ahead of the evacuation and cleaning campaign. “I have decided to help them and divide the street into two parts in order to make the road and the pavement clear and open,” he added,
Jum’a Hadi, another vendor, said they have broken his vending carriage. “They have thrown all the grocery. This order is against poor people and vendors.”
“They have thrown all the grocery. This order is against poor people and vendors.”
“Another reason behind removal order was overlooking health measures,” Yaychli said. “They were selling in an unhealthy way. The grocery was mixed with dirty water and it was not healthy,” he added.
Yaychli sadi that politics was involved in the protests. “A political party was making 20M Iraqi dinars a month taken from those people for securing the area.” He was not ready to reveal further details about the involved party.
