TURCOMAN - UNIFIED IN KIRKUK, DIVIDED IN BAGHDAD -REMAIN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000071

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, NCT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 3/29/2016
TAGS: PINR PGOV KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: TURCOMAN - UNIFIED IN KIRKUK, DIVIDED IN BAGHDAD -REMAIN
FRUSTRATED BY LAND DISTRIBUTION POLICIES

KIRKUK 00000071 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Michael Oreste, PRT Team Leader, REO Kirkuk,
Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (SBU) Summary. The Islamic Turcoman Union represents most
Shia Turcoman in Kirkuk. The party works with other Turcoman
parties on issues locally but is aligned with the Unified Iraqi
Alliance in Baghdad. The Shia Turcoman remain frustrated with
the perceived bias and indecision in the land distribution
process in Kirkuk. End Summary.


ISLAMIC TURCOMAN UNION (ITU)
--------------


2. (SBU) IPAOs met with Shia Turcoman and Kirkuk provincial
council member Tasin Kahiya. Kahiya is a member of the Islamic
Turcoman Union, which holds four seats in the Council of
Representatives. Kahiya said the ITU has two goals: first,
remove the injustices of the Iraqi Turcoman; and second, remove
the injustices of all Iraqi Shia. His party is aligned with the
Unified Iraqi Alliance (UIA) in Baghdad but works closely with
all Turcoman in Kirkuk.


TURCOMAN PARTIES DIVIDED ON POLITICAL STRATEGY
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3. (C) When asked how the ITU differed from the Iraqi Turcoman
Front (ITF),Kahiya said the ITU, unlike the ITF, had strategic
goals for Iraq. The ITF was merely "a reactionary group" that
focused excessively on current events to formulate its policy.
He argued that the ITF had limited the Turcoman voice at the
national level because of its decision to run independently in
the December 2005 national elections. As a result, the ITF
acquired only one seat, while the ITU gained four seats by
uniting with the UIA. Kahiya predicted that if the ITF did not
reform, the party was likely to continue to lose influence.

UNFAIR LAND DISTRIBUTION POLICIES
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4. (C) Kahiya complained that many Kurds continue to move to
Kirkuk and grab land illegally. He confessed that the Kurds had
the legal right to move into Kirkuk, as long as they did not
trespass or squat on others' land. He qualified his stance,
however, adding that due to political sensitivities it was
immoral for non-resident Kurds to populate Kirkuk in the run-up
to the 2007 referendum.


5. (SBU) In describing the Iraqi Property Claims Commission
(IPCC),Kahiya said it was a lazy organization that was unable
to resolve many of the claims given to it. A major problem,
according to Kahiya, was that the legislation was poorly
written. For example, the former regime took much of the land
for "public use," and the current law does not recognize these
claims. Kahiya said the Turcoman have met with the Council of
Ministers in an effort to prevent the IPCC in Baghdad from
reviewing additional cases until these deficiencies were
accounted for and resolved.

LEADERSHIP NOTES
--------------


6. (SBU) Kahiya is a politburo member of the ITU. He served
as the Kirkuk provincial council chairman for two years before
Iraq's first provincial elections in January 2005. Kahiya is
from the Tisin neighborhood in Kirkuk. He graduated from a
technical institute and later gained an advanced degree in
religious studies. Kahiya is in his third year of law school at
Kirkuk University. Kahiya fled Iraq in 1981 when the Ba'ath
Party pursued him on execution orders. He remained active in
the Iraqi Opposition community from 1981 to 2003. Kahiya in
1991 helped form the ITU, which is a break off from the Da'wa
Party.


7. (SBU) Abbas Bayati, who was elected to both the
Transitional National Assembly and Council of Representatives,
leads the ITU. He served on the TNA's foreign relations
committee, traveling often in that position. Bayati graduated
from a nursing institute and later gained a master's degree in
religious studies. Bayati is a prolific writer and hails from
Diyala.


8. (SBU) Jasim Muhammad Jafar, Iraqi Minister of Housing and
Construction, serves as Bayati's deputy in the ITU. He is from
Tuz in the Salah ad Din province and earned a master's degree in

KIRKUK 00000071 002.2 OF 002


civil engineering. The ITU is lobbying to keep Jafar in his
ministerial position in Iraq's permanent government. Bayati,
Jafar, and Kahiya compose the top tier leadership of the ITU.
ITU membership is primarily reserved for Shia Turcoman. The
party prefers to work with other sectarian or ethnic parties as
counterparts rather than co-opting them into their party.

COMMENT
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9. (C) Kahiya displayed an antagonistic stance toward the ITF,
which reflects the political and ideological divide that exists
between Shia and Sunni Turcoman. Kahiya substantiated our
assumption that the Shia Turcoman are aligned with the Turcoman
on Kirkuk issues and the Shia coalition at the national level.
The ITU's ability to acquire four seats in the Council of
Representatives, while the ITF - having a larger Turcoman
constituency - gained only one seat, helped to validate the
ITU's claim of superior strategy at maximizing the Turcoman
voice at the national level.
ORESTE