Fourteen Kurdish parties met together in Kirkuk to discuss and evaluate the seizure of Kurdish people’s properties and incidents of concern taking place in the city. Kirkuk is the capital of the Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq, located 238 kilometres (148 miles) to the north of Baghdad.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) did not attend the meeting despite receiving an invitation. The meeting was held in the second bureau building of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (YNK), located in Kirkuk.

Mihemed Osman, the representative of YNK, issued a statement after the meeting. He stated that the meeting had been organised by the YNK to discuss the incidents relating to the seizures of properties of Kurdish people living in the area and the attitude of the Kirkuk Governor Rakan Saeed al-Jabouri to this situation.

Osman appealed to Kurdish people to protect their properties. He also criticized the KDP’s accommodating attitude towards Turkey.

Following the independence referendum that was held in 2017, Iraq’s armed forces have been deployed in the city.