The pro-referendum camp tried to offset the influence of the organizing committees on Sept. 19, when Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani traveled to Kirkuk, accompanied by veteran peshmerga commander Kosrat Rasul, who is officially in charge of the PUK following Talabani's illness.
Rasul tried to end the bickering and ordered the members of the Malband to support the referendum. Most Malband members did not attend a pro-referendum rally afterward and did not initiate campaigning for the referendum, sources informed about the dispute told Al-Monitor. Most members continue to think holding the referendum in Kirkuk province is unwise.
Kirkuk is currently the PUK's main power base, with its control over Sulaimaniyah under increasing pressure from Goran, the Change Movement, the reform-based party that split from the PUK in 2009.
Shorsh Khalid is the managing editor of Kirkuknow, a web-based news outlet covering the disputed territories in Kirkuk, Diyala, Salahuddin and Ninevah provinces. “I think this was one of the best decisions Malband has made. … They are in the heart of the situation and know the threats of holding the referendum,” Khalid, a native of Kirkuk, told Al-Monitor.
“I think the decision to hold the referendum in the disputed areas is like a declaration of war, as Hashid Shaabi [Popular Mobilization Units (PMU)] — most of whom are Arabs and Turkmens — said it should not be held in their latest statement.”
Other opposing parties in the area include Iraqi PMU militias affiliated with Iran, who have a strong presence in Shiite areas in the south of Kirkuk and in the Tuz Khormato area in Salahuddin province. Moreover, the Baghdad government, which opposes the referendum, has recently deployed thousands of troops to the area with the launch of the Sept. 21 offensive to retake Hawija and other areas west of Kirkuk from the Islamic State (IS).
When Iraqi soldiers fled for their lives in June 2014 with the IS blitzkrieg into northern Iraq, Kirkuk fell under KRG control with thousands of peshmerga stationed in and around it.
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