SULAIMANI (ESTA) — An independent commission including activists and public figures on Thursday announced a project for Kirkuk regionalization in the province.
“Today, we are announcing a proposal to make Kirkuk an independent region,” a representative for the commission read a Kurdish statement during a press conference.
The commission said the Iraqi constitution has also allowed every province to become an independent region.
Kirkuk, a disputed area claimed by both the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government, sits on the edge of an expansive oil field that can be tapped for about a half million barrels per day (bpd).
In accordinace with paragraph 2 of Article 117 and Articles 118-121 of the Iraqi constitution, a law was adopted on Feb. 11, 2008, establishing special procedures for establishing regions within provinces. As per this law, the provincial council must submit a petition to the federal government in Baghdad, which then refers the petition to the electoral commission to conduct a referendum on regionalization.
In 2016, the Iraqi presidency also announced a proposal to make Kirkuk an independent region. The proposal stipulated the establishment of Kirkuk as an independent region, within power distribution among its main nationalist components.
According to Article 140, and its invocation of Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law, normalization in disputed territories, including Kirkuk, must go through three phases: Members of the diaspora must be allowed to return and people not native to the area relocated and compensated if necessary to accommodate the returnees. After conducting a census, a referendum is to be held on whether to integrate Kirkuk into Iraqi Kurdistan or maintain its current territorial status as an Iraqi province.
Article 140 also states that normalization in disputed territories should be accomplished by the end of 2007.
