The Turkmen member of the Kirkuk provincial council, Ahmad Ramzi, returned to the council sessions after nearly seven months of boycotting the local government formed at the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad.
After participating in the provincial council session on March 3, 2025, Ramzi told KirkukNow the reasons for his return to the council and the events behind the boycott, despite the anger of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF).
Ahmad Ramzi, who is close to Arshad Salihi, former leader of the ITF and currently a member of the Iraqi parliament, told KirkukNow, “I did not believe in the boycott because we have experienced it before and have bitter memories. Each party and coalition has its own plan, although for each plan A, there must be a plan B if the first fails.”
On August 10, 2024, the governor, the speaker of the provincial council, the deputy governor, and the rapporteur of the provincial council were elected in a meeting held late at night in a hall of the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad.
The Kirkuk provincial council consists of 16 seats; The Kurds have seven seats (five for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan PUK and two from the Kurdistan Democratic Party KDP), six for the Arabs (three for the Arab coalition, two for the leadership, and one for the Ouruba), two seats for the Turkmen, and one last seat for the Christians.
"After the failure of the tripartite coalition, which included the Turkmen Front, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, and five Arab members, we had to go into an alternative plan, but the insistence of the ITF leadership to reject the existing situation made us pay a high price for that," Ramzi added.
He believes the reason for the "failure" of the tripartite coalition was not the quorum problem, which reached nine members, but the insistence of three members of the coalition leadership who refused to form a government for six to seven months, which made some members hopeless and join the new coalition.
Turkmen, the third largest ethnic group in Iraq after Arabs and Kurds, are spread across the country, residing almost exclusively in the northern towns and villages stretching from Tal Afar through Mosul, Erbil, the center of Kirkuk, and Altun Kopri district, Tuz Khurmatu of Salahaddin, and Kifri and Khanaqin in Diyala. They are all Muslims, half Sunnis and half Shiites.
Though there are no official records about the Turkmen in Kirkuk, the Turkmen political parties say there are over 200,000 Turkmen voters in Kirkuk.
The northern, oil-rich, ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk is home to about 1.77 million Kurds, Turkmen, and Arabs. Located 238 kilometers north of Baghdad, it has long been at the center of disputes between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Rashid Hotel Night
Rebwar Taha's election as governor of Kirkuk was not unexpected, as he was named for the post for several months after the election until the night of the election, even before the election process, but more controversy over the post of council speaker for the Arabs.
Many expected a fierce battle and a huge conflict when deciding the government, before nine council members met in a hall of the Rashid Hotel in Baghdad and quickly, calmly, with smiles and a memorable "selfie" quickly determined the governor and posts and the Speaker of the Provincial Council.
Taha appointed as the governor from the Kurdish component representing the (PUK) and Mohammed Hafez as the speaker of the provincial council from the Arab component, representing the Taqadum party chaired by former parliament speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi.
There was a lot of pressure to settle the Kirkuk government, from all sides, especially Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Sudani, who played a clear role in resolving the governance crisis in the province, more than once, brought all the winning parties in the provincial council together.
The delegation of some Arab parties, who were the main party of the meeting at the Rashid Hotel, were at the house of Halbusi. Rayan Kildani, head of Babilyoun bloc for the Christian community, was one of the leaders who cheered the meeting along with Bafel Talabani, the leader of the PUK, who earned back the governor's post after seven years.
Although the Turkmen issued statements and protests against their marginalization, the photos showed a different scene as Rashid Gharib Askar, Kirkuk MP on behalf of the Turkmen, attended the meeting and congratulated Rebwar Taha and the success of the meeting assembly. Sources said that senior positions were set for the Turkmen as deputy governor and vice president of provincial council.
Other Arab parties, especially Rakan al-Jiburi, an Arab who served as acting governor for seven years, called the participation of some Arabs in the meeting "treason", followed by a wave of accusations and media warfare on both sides of the Arab community.
Citizens' rights and Turkmen “shame”
Ramzi, who collected 19,993 votes, said, "Our waiting for the court ruling on the legitimacy of the local government and respecting the decision of our political reference did not prevent us from providing services. We did not stay in our homes or offices.”
“I have done a lot to open many roads that have been closed since 2003. We have paid attention to health issues. Now I am working on turning the pandemic emergency hospital to an emergency one, and I did all of these ahead of the court decisions were made.”
Both the Administrative and Federal Courts have rejected a number of lawsuits by the protesters, the last of which was on December 22, 2024, which emphasized all the procedures of the Baghdad meeting to determine the Kirkuk government were legal.
The complainants included Rakan al-Jiburi, the leader of the Arab coalition, former Kirkuk governor, Hassan Turan, the leader of the ITF, whom objected Baghdad meeting for not informing, inviting, and involving them.
The protesters are the ITF, the (KDP), the Arab Coalition, and Sovereignty (Siyada), believe the current government has violated the law.
"What is the fault of the citizens who participated in the elections and now pay the price of political struggle? Citizens want services and employment, so we were in a very shameful position on the boycott front,” Ramzi recalls.
"I chose the interests of the citizens, despite the pressure and criticism I faced, but I was able to achieve something about the issue of private generators, although the political leadership was angry with my decision to participate," he said.
"What I want to emphasize is that participation is important even if you are in the opposition. It is better than staying out of the sessions. The real opposition should be in the council, not in their offices.”
Story of Sharing Senior Positions
The main controversy over the governor's post, especially for the Kurds (seven seats) and the Arabs (six seats), was that each side insisted on getting the post while the Turkmen suggested sharing it by the Arabs, Kurds, and Turkmens for the four-year term in rotation.
Earlier, during the Ba'ath regime, most of the main joints of administration and governance in Kirkuk were in the hands of the Arab community, without any elections, and after 2003, the Kurds were at the top of the executive power until 2017 when the post fell back to the Arabs until last year when a Kurdish candidate from the PUK faction regained the post again.
The first governor of Kirkuk after the 2005 provincial council elections was Abdulrahman Mustafa from the Kurdish side. In 2011, Najmaddin Karim was elected governor from the Kurdish/PUK side by the same council, after six years he was ousted by decision of the Iraqi parliament.
Since 2003, 32% of the administrative posts in Kirkuk have been allocated to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmens, with 4% to Christians, based on a project by former Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and the late PUK secretary. The project was agreed upon in July 2009 by the Kirkuk provincial council, although it did not extend to the lower posts.
The fate of the province of Kirkuk and the entire disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil is within the framework of Article 140 of the constitution through three stages of normalization, census, and referendum.
