FM meets with Iraqi Turkmen leader in Ankara

ANKARA

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a meeting with Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF) head Hasan Turan in the capital Ankara on Jan. 2.

Fidan and Turan were accompanied by their respective delegations for the meeting, a photo the ministry released on X showed.

The encounter followed Iraq's recent elections held on Dec. 18, 2023, which marked the country's first local polls in a decade and Kirkuk's since 2005 due to the disruptions caused by the war against ISIL.

In the northern oil-rich city of Kirkuk, the ITF garnered approximately 72,000 votes, securing two seats and claiming the third position in the 16-seat assembly. The electoral landscape in Kirkuk proved diverse, with a Kurdish party aligned with the ruling Shi'ite Muslim Coordination Framework (CF) emerging as the front-runner, which clinched seven seats, followed by a Sunni Arab list.

The Kirkuk council operates under a unique quota system, reserving one seat for Christians, which ensures that no single ethnic group can independently form the local government as a coalition must amass at least nine seats to secure a majority in the assembly, ultimately determining the governor.

The ITF, a political coalition established in 1995, comprises various Turkmen parties with the shared objective of enhancing the political representation, recognition and rights of the Turkmen community in Iraq.