UNHCR's ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES FOR ASSESSING THE ...

Turkmen communities in Kirkuk have sharply increased in 2006 and early 2007, in
particular after the killing of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, former leader of Al-Qa’eda in Iraq,
with a number of his supporters having moved to Kirkuk apparently to further stir tensions
among Iraq’s communities. 434 Sunni extremist groups such as Al-Qa’eda and Ansar
Al-Sunna have been recruiting Sunni Arabs and even Sunni Turkmen, many of whom had
been forced to leave Kirkuk by the Kurds. 435 There is fear of further escalation in view of
the forthcoming referenda on the status of “disputed areas”, which, most analysts agree, the
Kurds are expected to win. 436
b) “Kurdification”
Turkmen, Arab, Christian and Shabak parties claim harassment and forced assimilation by
Kurdish militias in Kirkuk and other mixed areas such as villages in the Ninewa Plain, with
the aim of incorporating these areas into the Region of Kurdistan. 437 Ethnic minorities have
repeatedly accused the Kurdish parties and their military forces of acts of violence and
discrimination, 438 arbitrary arrests and detention on sectarian basis, political
marginalization 439 (including through electoral manipulations), 440 monopolizing of
434
According to UNAMI HRO, “(I)nter-ethnic tensions between Arab, Turkoman and Kurdish communities
are escalating in Kirkuk”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 13, see above
footnote 5. See also: Louise Roug, Northern Iraq seen as next front in war, Los Angeles Times, 2 February
2007, http://www.ft.com/cms/s/f3e52750-b1d4-11db-a79f-0000779e2340.html; IRIN, Iraq: Ethnic tensions
mount in Kirkuk, 16 November 2006, http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=61946; Senanayake,
Iraq: Ethnic Tensions Increasing In Oil-Rich City, see above footnote 45; Michael Howard, As violence
grows, oil-rich Kirkuk could hold key to Iraq’s future, The Guardian, 27 October 2006,
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1932789,00.html; RFE/RL, Kirkuk Could be Engulfed by Sectarian
Violence, Experts Say, 17 August 2006, http://www.rferl.org/releases/2006/08/431-180806.asp; Ali Windawi
and Julian E. Barnes, Violence surges in contested city of Kirkuk, Los Angeles Times, 20 July 2006,
http://www.peyamner.com/article.php?id=54461&lang=english.
435
According to the Washington Institute, the majority of the twenty suicide bombings perpetrated in Kirkuk
from July to October 2006 were presumably the work of Al-Qa’eda; see: Cagaptay and Fink, see above
footnote 44.
436
See, for example, Roug, see above footnote 434, and Iraq Study Group Report, p. 19, see above
footnote 35.
437
UNAMI HRO reported that “Kirkuk is heavily controlled by security forces and Kurdish militias. Kurdish
militias (Peshmerga) exercise to a large degree effective control of the city; most senior official positions are
occupied by Kurds or their allies from other ethnicities”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights
Report, p. 24, see above footnote 10.
438
UNAMI HRO expressed concern over the intimidation of minorities in Kirkuk through the use of Kurdish
security forces and the power of detention to prevent minorities from playing a significant role in the city’s
affairs; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human Rights Report, p. 23, see above footnote 10. The US State
Department reported that “Kurdish authorities abused and discriminated against minorities in the North,
including Turcomen, Arabs, Christians, and Shabak. Authorities denied services to some villages, arrested
minorities without due process and took them to undisclosed locations for detention, and pressured minority
schools to teach in the Kurdish language”; see USDOS, 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices –
Iraq, see above footnote 333.
439
UNAMI HRO expressed concern over the situation of minorities in Kirkuk and “their ability to effectively
participate in its political, economic and social development”; see UNAMI HRO, December 2006 Human
Rights Report, p. 23, see above footnote 10.
440
AFP, Kurds accused of rigging Kirkuk vote, 8 February 2005, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/archive/
archive?ArchiveId=19677; AFP, Ethnic tensions deepen over vote in northern Iraqi city, 6 February 2006,
http://www.institutkurde.org/en/info/index.php?subaction=showfull&id=1107790140&archive=&start_from=
88