Deputy Speaker Hawrami meets Head of Kirkuk Governorate Council Rebwar Talabani

Kurdistan Parliament Deputy Speaker Hemin Hawrami on 18th June welcomed Mr. Rebwar Talabani, Head of Kirkuk Governorate Council. Ms. Jiwan Rojbayani (KDP), Head of Parliament’s Committee on Kurdistani Areas outside the KRG Administrative Area and several committee members also participated in the meeting.

Mr. Hawrami, Mr. Talabani and the committee members discussed the situation in the Kurdistan Region and Iraq generally and in Kirkuk in particular. They stressed that the situation in the city of Kirkuk must be normalised and that Peshmerga forces should return to improve the poor security.

The meeting also discussed villages near Kirkuk where Kurdish farmers have been victims of arson attacks against their crops, in a deliberate campaign to drive them from their lands. Deputy Speaker Hawrami said, “The Kurdistan Parliament has condemned such acts, has asked the Iraqi government to normalize the situation in the areas and has urged better security and protection for all people regardless of their ethnicity or religion.”

On resolving the Kurdistani Areas outside the KRG administrative areas, the meeting agreed that Article 140 of the Constitution provides the solutions and must be implemented, and that the Peshmerga forces must return to the areas to improve the security situation.

Mr. Talabani and the Parliament committee agreed to increase coordination between the committee and Kirkuk Governorate Council, to follow the rapid developments and to look for peaceful solutions that preserve coexistence between all of the area’s ethnic and religious components.