A video clip circulated a few days ago on social media sparked a media war between the Arab Council in Kirkuk, headed by Rakan Saeed Al-Jibouri, governor of Kirkuk, and two Turkmen member of the Iraqi parliament MP, each front accusing the other of domination over senior state provincial positions including the state-run North Oil Company positions.
The dispute between the two sides reached the media and social media platforms after that Arshad Al-Salihi, MP of the Iraqi Turkmen Front ITF, and Falah Askar, the Turkmen MP from the Badr Alliance, accused the director of the North Oil Company of “sectarianism and racism,” and described him as “unscrupulous.”
How the fire was ignited
The two Turkmen deputies appeared in a 43-second video filmed on April 26, talking to a number of university and institute postgraduates inside the premises of Kirkuk province, where they attacked the general manager of the North Oil Company, Burkan Hassan, who is of the Arab component.
At the beginning of the video clip, Arshad Al-Salihi addresses the postgraduates saying, "You are free to take the position you see fit regarding your demands, there is no benefit from the Ministry of Oil or the North Oil Company, because the Ministry and the Oil Company have no conscience," in reference to unfairness in terms of employment of postgraduates and sharing the positions among components of Kirkuk.
Later Askar affirmed, "The director of the North Oil Company, Burkan Hassan is a sectarian and racist person.”
the Ministry and the Oil Company have no conscience
The two representatives were addressing a group of postgraduates who had been working for some time as trainees on contracts with the North Oil Company, and after the expiry of their contracts, they staged several demonstrations to demand their appointment.
The video clip spread quickly on social networks, and on the same day the Arab Council in Kirkuk, responded with a statement.
"At a time, Kirkuk enjoys peaceful coexistence among its people.... we are surprised and reject the clear attack and the unjustified tense position and without any evidence by the Turkmen representatives, which targeted the Ministry of Oil, the North Oil Company and its director," the statement said.
Video of representatives Arshad Al-Salihi and Gharib Askar, published on April 26, 2022
The statement indicated that a, this attack comes at a time when "the Turkmen occupy most of the administrative positions and responsibilities in that company."
The Arab Council in Kirkuk issued a warning to both MPs, Arshad Al-Salihi and Gharib Askar, "We reject the use of the supervisory capacity of the parliament member incorrectly, the use of the method of attack, defamation, incitement to incite violence and the perversion of state institutions to obtain gains at the expense of the rights of the rest of the components."
Following the ousting of the Baath regime led by Saddam Hussein in 2003, the settlers resided Kirkuk, mainly Arabs, were compensated to return to their homelands.
The Kurdish and Turkmen families forced to leave Kirkuk from 1970s through 2003, returned to the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, which is an ethnically mixed province for 1.7 million Kurds, Sunni and Shiite Arabs, and Turkmens.
The Kurds had an upper hand in Kirkuk up to October 16, 2017 when the Iraqi forces took over power in Kirkuk and the disputed territories. An Arab governor replaced the Kurdish governor, Najmaddin Karim.
Kirkuk is one of the main disputed territories in addition to Diyalah and Nineveh that a three-stage process outlined in Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution in 2005, stipulating normalization, a population census and a referendum on the status of the territories, was drawn to put an end to Kurdistan region government KRG and Iraqi Federal government dispute over these areas.
Exchange of figures about senior positions
In addition to the statement of the Arab Council, Dr. Muhammad Nasir Saadoun al-Jibouri, the losing candidate for the list of progress in Kirkuk and candidate of Sovereignty Alliance - headed by the speaker Muhammad al-Halbousi and Khamis Khanjar - which also includes the Arab Council, published statistics showing how government positions in Kirkuk are distributed.
The statistics, which he published on his Facebook page, and his office sent a copy of it to the conversation group for Kirkuk journalists, indicated that most of the positions are at the hands of the Kurds and Turkmens.
the Kurds occupy at least 15 positions and the Turkmens less than 15, while the Arab component holds four
According to statistics, the Kurds occupy at least 15 positions and the Turkmens less than 15, while the Arab component holds four positions without referring to the position of the governor.
"During the last period, we saw some Turkmen and Kurdish politicians talking about the need for a fair sharing of positions in Kirkuk and the great marginalization practiced by Arabs against the rest of the components after the events of October 16, 2017,” al-Jibouri wrote in a post in response to Salihi and Askar.
“Therefore, I will respond with numbers and a table showing the distribution of positions in Kirkuk and how out of 33 positions, Arabs have only 4 positions," he added.
"All other positions are held by the Turkmen and Kurds, even the positions of the assistant are for non-Arabs."
Following the military defeat of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria ISIS, discord over security arrangements, public services, and the lack of a unified administration in the disputed territories, Kirkuk in particular, have plagued victims and survivors.
Currently, Iraqi army, local and federal police, Brigade 61 of Special Forces along with Shiite paramilitary of Popular Mobilization Forces PMF, are under Kirkuk joint operations’ command, an umbrella for the security forces running the security of Kirkuk province.
"I do not accuse the directors of these departments of negligence. On the contrary, most of them are my friends and professionals in their work. But have the Arabs become a minority in Kirkuk so that the percentage of Arab positions does not exceed only 10% of the total positions?" al-Jibouri exclaimed.
"I hope that an inventory of the number of positions in the North Oil Company will be carried out, starting from unit manager and up to see the number of positions for Arabs, .... I want to clarify that most of the trainees are Arabs who have been dismissed from appointment for many years, so how can an Arab manager prevent Arabs from being appointed?"
"I ask the deputies to exercise their oversight role instead of sectarian statements that cramp the city's situation," he concluded
After publishing that statistic, the office of the representative of al-Salihi, responded by publishing a statistic on positions in the North Oil Company.
Out of 63 positions in the North Oil Company, Arabs occupy 39 positions, Turkmens 14, Kurds 8 , while Christians occupy two positions
According to the statistics obtained by (KirkukNow) and confirmed by a source close to Al-Salihi, out of a total of 63 positions in the North Oil Company, Arabs occupy 39 positions, Turkmens 14, Kurds 8 positions, while Christians occupy two positions.
Regarding the issue of employment by the North Oil Company, Al-Salihi said in an interview on Wednesday, April 27, on Al Sharqiya satellite TV channel, "There are courts that separate us from them," referring to the director of the North Oil Company.
This coincided with efforts by the North Oil Company to organize a demonstration to denounce the statements of the Turkmen deputies, but the demonstration that was scheduled to take place on Thursday, April 28, was postponed until further notice.
