Kirkuk

Kirkuk governor Najmiddin Karim has refused to apply a decision by the Iraqi parliament to pull down the flag of northern Iraq's Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) over the city's public buildings and institutions.

"The decision taken in the Iraqi parliament is not legal; it is a hasty decision," Karim said in a statement on April 2.

Attempts to make the raising of the Kurdish flag in Kirkuk a fait accompli are unacceptable, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım said late April 1, voicing support for Baghdad's decision not to permit such flags in the city.

The Iraqi Parliament on April 1 voted against the decision of Kirkuk Provincial Council to raise the flag of Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) alongside the Iraqi flag in the disputed oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the parliament session and the lawmakers voted to bring down the KRG flag on all governmental buildings in Kirkuk.  

Turkey on March 29 voiced its opposition to a vote in the disputed oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk to fly the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) flag over government buildings, warning against "unilateral steps."

Provincial councilors in Kirkuk province voted March 28 to fly the regional flag.

A city council in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk has approved raising the Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) flag over official buildings, receiving protests from Turkmen and Arab members of the council. 

Both Turkey and the United Nations had expressed their concerns over such a move.  

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) has said it is concerned by the recent decision of the governor of Kirkuk to raise the flag of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRG) over the city of Kirkuk.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has criticized the Kirkuk governorate's decision to fly the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government's (KRG) flag on state buildings on official state days.

Last week, Russian planes killed three Turkish soldiers and wounded 11 in "friendly fire" on the same day as the new head of the CIA visited Turkey. 

Iraqi security forces on Oct. 24 ended an attack by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Kirkuk city, killing at least 74 jihadists in three days of clashes, the provincial governor said, while Iraqi forces advancing on Mosul faced stiff resistance from the jihadist group.

Turkey is looking to kill a number of birds with one stone amid its recent insistence on participating in the offensive on Mosul, according to a Turkish professor of international relations. Regional, anti-terror and domestic considerations are all at play, according to Hasan Köni