Iraqi security forces banned raise of Kurdistan flag in the disputed territories as Kurdish residents were celebrating Kurdish New Year Newroz on March 20.
On March 20, the eve of Newroz, Kurds celebrate by wearing traditional attire and lighting bonfires. It also commemorates the day Peshmarga (Kurdish forces) controlled the oil-rich city of Kirkuk after driving out the former Ba’ath regime from the city in 1991.
Kurdish parties were ruling Kirkuk and most of the disputed areas since fall of Saddam regime in 2003 up to 2017 when Iraqi troops took over disputed territories following the claimed defeat of extremist jihadist group of the Islamic State ISIS.
Iraqi army detained four young Kurdish residents of the villages of Zummar district of Nineveh Northern province for raising the Kurdish flag. Zummar subdistrict, it is located 60 km north west of Mosul city with 50,000 Kurd and Arab inhabitants
Firas Hawar, a civil society activist from Zummar, said people of these three villages raised flag of Kurdistan yet the Iraqi army said Iraqi government allows raise of Iraqi flag only in the disputed territories.
“The soldiers wanted to stop people from raising the flag but people insisted so they exchanged verbal abuse. Iraqi army shot gunfire at air and detained the four youngsters for three hours,” he added.
“The soldiers wanted to stop people from raising the flag but people insisted so they exchanged verbal abuse. Iraqi army shot gunfire at air and detained the four youngsters for three hours,” he added.
Zummar is part of the disputed area of Iraq that runs from Shingal on the Syrian border southeast to Khanaqin and Mandali on the Iranian border. It has long been at the center of disputes between the federal government in Baghdad and the Erbil-based autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
Following the toppling of Bath party led by Saddam Hussein in 2003, Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution endorsed in 2005 outlined a road map for disputed territories calling for normalization, census and referendum to determine its administration all in two years but only part of the first stage has been implemented up to the present.
Kurds wanted Kirkuk and the disputed territories to become part of the Kurdistan region via a referendum held in September 2017, which has been opposed by the regions’ Arab and Turkmen populations. The polls sparked a military campaign by Iraqi forces to oust Kurdish forces that ruled the region for years.
In the Northern Province of Kirkuk, Iraq's second largest oil reserves, Rahimawa police station asked Kurdistan communist party to put down the Kurdish flag they raised in celebration of Newroz bonfire.
“Joint operation command tasked police to bring down the flag based on orders of Iraqi parliament and council of ministers,” a security source told KirkukNow on the condition of anonymity.
The security procedures sparked wide protests among Kurdish population in the disputed territories. “This behavior by Baghdad for raising flag of Kurdistan is violation of the constitution and law and it is considered an occupation,” a local official of Kurdistan communist party in Kirkuk said.
“This behavior by Baghdad for raising flag of Kurdistan is violation of the constitution and law and it is considered an occupation,”
Kirkuk, located 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, is ethnically a mixed province of Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Turkmen.
Thousands of Kurds celebrated Newroz in 2018 raising the Kurdish flag in Kirkuk Citadel. Photo by KirkukNow.
Baghdad and Erbil disagree about the controversial issue of Kurdish flag in the disputed territories that reoccurs particularly in Newroz celebrations, the national day for the Kurds in Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey.
As the Kurds were holding majority of seats in Kirkuk provincial council, they voted for flying the flag in Kirkuk in a session held on March 28, 2017 boycotted by representatives of Arabs and Turkmens.
In response, Iraqi parliament unanimously voted that Iraqi flag is the only flag to be raised in the disputed territories in April 2017, protested by Kurdish MPs. Baghdad administrative court ruled out that Kirkuk provincial council adoption of the Kurdish flag as violation of law.
Currently endorsed Iraq’s supreme federal court said in 2018 it is not entitled to address such a dispute between Baghdad and Erbil. Former Iraqi prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi asked Iraqi president Barham Saleh, a Kurd, in 2019 to preserve Iraqi constitution and call on the Kurdish parties in Kirkuk to lower flag of Kurdistan on their bases.
In 2019, the Newroz celebrations proceeded peacefully in the disputed territories of Iraq despite fears of tensions in some areas including Kirkuk yet people celebrated the event together with bonfires and folk dance. Kurdish flags were no seen obviously.
In Khanaqin district of Diyala, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK, one the leading Kurdish fractions led by son and cousin, as co-presidents, of deceased Iraqi president Jalal Talabani, distributed 500 flags raised when Newroz bonfire lit yet Iraqi forces asked activists to collect the flags to avoid tension.
