The political resolution of Kirkuk and the disputed territories remains as one of the most difficult issues yet to be fully addressed by the Governments of Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. Multiple issues regarding the final status of Kirkuk need to be addressed before breakthroughs can be achieved. For any political solution to be successful, political will is needed and compromises and concessions will have to be made by all parties, primarily local actors in Kirkuk.
MERI’s Kirkuk Policy Report “The Future of Kirkuk: A Roadmap for Resolving the Status of the Province” outlines clear recommendations for all relevant actors with the aim of bringing the issue of their province to the fore and fostering a constructive debate on Kirkuk’s future. These can only be achieved through greater levels of communication, the lobbying of relevant parties and the adoption of confidence building measures. All of this must be undertaken with the aim of bringing a peaceful resolution to the issue of Kirkuk.
Access the full report in PDF here.
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About MERI: The Middle East Research Institute is Iraq’s leading policy-research institute and think tank. It is an independent, entirely grant-funded not-for-profit organisation, based in Erbil, Kurdistan Region. Its mission is to contribute to the process of nation-building, state-building and democratisation via engagement, research, analysis and policy debates.
MERI’s main objectives include promoting and developing human rights, good governance, the rule of law and social and economic prosperity. MERI conduct high impact, high quality research (including purpose-based field work) and has published extensively in areas of: human rights, government reform, international politics, national security, ISIS, refugees, IDPs, minority rights (Christians, Yezidis, Turkmen, Shabaks, Sabi mandeans), Baghdad-Erbil relations, Hashd Al-Shabi, Peshmarga, violence against women, civil society. MERI engages policy- and decision-makers, the civil society and general public via publication, focused group discussions and conferences (MERI Forum).