The Governor of Kirkuk called on citizens to adhere to the general population census and stressed that there are no other intentions or purposes behind the census.
Rebwar Taha's statements came at a press conference held on Saturday, November 16, at the Governorate of Kirkuk building following the first meeting of the Higher Census Committee in Kirkuk.
Rebwar Taha addressed Kirkuk families, saying, "Stay in your homes during the two days designated for the census. There will be a curfew and all roads will be closed in order for the process to succeed," noting that "there are no other intentions or purposes for the census... We are closely monitoring the process. There are no concerns. We hope that you will stay in your homes until the process is completed."
He also called on people of Kirkuk living out of the city to return home for official registration.
"I appeal to the people of Kirkuk, especially those who are not present in Kirkuk, to return so that they are not deprived of their right and participate in the general census," Taha said.
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 the disputed territories between the federal government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government KRG.
I appeal to the people of Kirkuk, especially those who are not present in Kirkuk, to return
This comes at a time when it was stressed that no one will be deprived of the census even if they are not present in their original province.
According to the decision of the Iraqi Council of Ministers, the November 20, 2024 general census in Kirkuk and the rest of the disputed territories will be based on the 1957 census and all data will be compared with the records of that year, and a joint committee from the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government will undertake the data comparison process.
Hawry Tofiq, the advisor to the Iraqi presidency, who participated in most of the meetings held between representatives of the federal Iraqi government and the KRG regarding the population census issue, said during a dialogue session conducted with him by the Draw Media Foundation and attended by a KirkukNow correspondent that "the census results in Kirkuk and the rest of the disputed territories will not be revealed before the joint committee between Baghdad and Erbil completes comparing the data with the 1957 records."
The census results in Kirkuk and the rest of the disputed territories will not be revealed before the joint committee between Baghdad and Erbil completes comparing the data with the 1957 records
According to the agreement concluded between the two governments, anyone not registered in the 1957 census records will not be counted as part of Kirkuk Governorate, while those whose names were included in the 1957 census will be counted among the residents of Kirkuk wherever they reside.
The agreement came at the request of the KRG delegation that made several visits to Baghdad last month.
"The request came because the Kurds feared that the census would be used for other purposes, including resolving Article 140 of the Constitution, but the central government reassured the Kurds that the census would not be used for this purpose, and on this basis the Kurds agreed to participate in the census," Tofiq said.
The Kurds feared that the census would be used for other purposes, including resolving Article 140 of the Constitution,
Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which deals with the determination of ownership of the disputed territories, states that a general census should be conducted in the second phase before the third and final phase of the referendum to resolve the issue.
However, the first phase of the article, compensation and normalization, has not yet been completed, although all three phases should have been completed by the end of 2007. The third phase is to conduct a census for the people of the disputed territories to decide either to join Baghdad or Erbil.
The fields related to ethnicity and sect were deleted from the census form, which dispelled the fears of the Kurds and Turkmen who doubted the intentions of the census.
The central supervisor of Kirkuk Province in the Statistics Authority, Hussein Hamid Khalaf, stressed in a previous interview with KirkukNow that "the population census process has nothing to do with the census mentioned in Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution."
Hamid, who was assigned by the Iraqi government to supervise the census process in Kirkuk, pointed out that “the main goal of the census is for the government to know the population distribution of citizens and the type of services they need.
“If a citizen has a six-month residence permit in any other area, he will be counted in the area where he resides, but this does not affect the province to which that person or family belongs,” Hamid added.
“For example, if you are a Kirkuk citizen but you live in Erbil or Sulaymaniyah, this will not affect the fact that you are originally from Kirkuk, but it will affect where you live in terms of the services required for that area.”
