"Kirkuk province has officially decided that alongside Arabic language, Kurdish should also be used in letters being issued by the city's apparatus and the Kurdish flag has to be flown across the city's governmental institutions ... The governor's statement has warned if 'any institution does not commit and fail to it will face legal investigations' ... In a second letter also issued by Karim to the Kirkuk Provincial Council, in light of the March events including Newruz, it calls upon the provincial council to decide to raise Kurdish flag alongside Iraq's across the government institutions and companies ... Kirkuk province it stopped processing applications for new national identity cards in protest of Baghdad’s use of the Baath-era name for the province ... secured by Kurdish Peshmerga forces"
http://www.rudaw.net/english/kurdistan/16032017
Iraq would be wise to immediately resolve this issue before it becomes an independence movement with momentum. This increases the probability of a Turkish invasion. There must be nothing in any way resembling a Kurdistan or PKK in Northern Iraq.
