Of course, the Kurdish politicians, who would like to see Kirkuk become part of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, feel differently. And they say that the Kurdish who are returning to Kirkuk are simply those who were forced to leave before.
“Article 140 is part of the Constitution and is not invalid. Anyone who thinks it is no longer applicable is going against the Iraqi Constitution and the rule of law,” Khalid Shwani, an MP from the Kurdish alliance in Baghdad, argued. “It is the responsibility of Iraqi MPs to cooperate in getting this Article implemented. If Article 140 was implemented I believe that Kirkuk would immediately become part of the Kurdish region,” he concluded.
And the third group with a stake in Kirkuk, the ethnic minority Turkmen, remain in the middle of this dispute. Najat Hussein, a Turkman politician who sits on the provincial council in Kirkuk, describes Article 140 as frozen for the time being because of the circumstances.
All of the wrangling over Article 140, followed by the inactivity, has seen locals becoming more and more frustrated. And recently there have been calls to make Kirkuk an autonomous region all on its own.
One of the supporters of this idea is local political analyst, Ihsan Najm ad-Din. He believes that all of the political parties involved are wasting time and that they don’t seriously want to resolve the problem of Article 140. “The ideal solution is that the people of Kirkuk form their own autonomous region away from the influence of political forces,” ad-Din says.
However until the different Iraqi political forces decide on any of those options, it seems that Umar - and thousands of people like him - will have to keep waiting until a decision is reached about their future.
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