Iraqi government's police recruitment in Kirkuk raises concerns of Arabization
The recruitment process, conducted without considering the city's ethnic makeup, allocated about 90% of positions to Arabs, showcasing an unbalanced approach to the recruitment of police forces.
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Iraqi government has recruited more than 671 police officers in Kirkuk, with the majority being Arabs, despite the city's predominantly Kurdish population. Only 31 of the new recruits are Kurds, and 27 are Turkmen.
Hussein Ali, an Arab recruit, told Kurdistan24’s correspondent Hemn Delo, "The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has transferred our names to the Ministry of Interior, and we have submitted our documents and we are done."
Another newly appointed officer, Saif Saad, added, "The Interior Ministry announced our names and we came and completed our inspections. Thank God we had no problems."
The recruitment process, conducted without considering the city's ethnic makeup, allocated about 90% of positions to Arabs.
Jassim Fazel, head of the internal forces in the area, told Kurdistan24, "The goal is clear. These cases have repeatedly occurred after October 16. We had the same problem in recruiting contract-based police force and faced the same problem in recruiting three other batches of contract-based police officers. However, this time the proportion of Arabs in the recruitment is much higher, which is obviously another aspect of Arabization, because they Arabize the city every time in some different manner."
Despite being the majority, Kurds in Kirkuk are often treated as a minority and denied services.
Kurdish officials argue that the recruitment strategy aims to Arabize the city by controlling government institutions through selective personnel recruitment.