On Iraq's faultline: Kirkuk governor calls for vote on Kurdish autonomy 
Kirkuk's ties with Iraq's Kurdish region are building, but its governor says he will not turn his back on Baghdad without securing best deal for city

Najmaldin Karim on the frontline outside Kirkuk (AFP) 

Children at a school in Kirkuk, which has been spared the worst of the war against IS (AFP)

Florian Neuhof-Saturday 19 March 2016

Kirkuk, IRAQ - On the streets of Kirkuk, a heavy security presence is keeping a lid on terrorism attacks tearing apart other areas of Iraq, but a palpable sense of tension remains.

Uniformed men are stationed at almost every junction, traffic slows at checkpoints and flows past blast walls protecting police stations and public buildings. The busy roads contrast with empty pavements lined with run-down houses and shabby convenience stores.

On the city's rim, the Kurdish Peshmerga have established themselves in bases once housing the Iraqi army, feeding men and material into the front lines holding the Islamic State group at arms length.

Cut lose from Baghdad's control, subject to competing claims, and eying autonomy, few cities embody the creeping disintegration and uncertain future of Iraq better than oil-rich but decaying Kirkuk.

The city and wider province is part of the so-called disputed territories that Kurdish troops were able to occupy when the Iraqi army collapsed under the IS onslaught in 2014. 

These territorial gains and the weakness of the government in Baghdad emboldened the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in its quest for an independent state. It is the stated objective of long-time President Massoud Barzani, who has called for a referendum on Kurdish independence to be held this year.

For Kirkuk's governor Najmaldin Karim, this represents a chance to force a decision on city's future. But a referendum on whether Kirkuk should become part of the KRG, outlined in Iraq's constitution, has failed to get off the ground, and the governor believes that the two mooted votes should be merged.

"If there is a referendum for Kurdistan, that should include Kirkuk as well," Karim tells Middle East Eye during an interview in his heavily guarded compound in the city centre.

After the fall of the Saddam Hussein in 2003, the city became part of the territories claimed by both the KRG and the central government in Baghdad, which straddle the autonomous Kurdish region and stretch from the Iranian to the Syrian border.

Sometimes referred to as the "Kurdish Jerusalem", the city is integral to Kurdish nationalism and  a central plank in secessionist aspirations.

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