By Kurdistan 24
Baxtiyar Goran
The Iraqi Parliament voted in favor of maintaining the administrative border of the province of Nineveh on Monday.
The Iraqi parliament held the session with the presence to discuss
several laws, including the vote to maintain the administrative border
of the Nineveh province.
The parliament vote was requested by Ahmed al-Jarba, a Sunni MP, representing Nineveh province.
“The Iraqi people reject any decision that partitions the Nineveh
province. The people of the city determine the destiny of their city in
the post-Islamic State (IS) stage,” al-Jabra said.
Al-Jabra added that any changes against the legal and administrative status quo will be unconstitutional.
This decision by the Iraqi parliament is against the demand of the
components of Nineveh, especially Ezidis and Christians who ask for
turning Shingal, mostly Ezidi-populated area, and Nineveh Plain,
majority Christian populated area, into new provinces.
Viyan Dakhil, a Kurdish Ezidi MP in the Iraqi parliament told
Kurdistan24 on Monday that Kurdish Ezidis will not return to the
evacuated city of Shingal without changes in the administration of
Nineveh Province.
Dakhil noted some ethnic and religious groups in Nineveh are
demanding changes in the administration of the province and want to
create separate provinces.
The President of the Kurdistan Region Masoud Barzani previously
stated the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) would promote the city of
Shingal to a province in the Region.
Nineveh Plains should be liberated from the Islamic State (IS) and
Christians' rights and future shall be secured, a Christian political
party leader told Kurdistan24.
Romio Hakkari, the Secretary-General of the Assyrian Bet al-Nahrain
Party who visited Washington to gain the US support in liberating
Christian areas in the province of Nineveh located in northern Iraq
which is often called "Nineveh Plains."
In June 2014, IS emerged in Mosul, the second-largest city in Iraq.
The group controlled large swaths of territory in the northern country,
including Christian populated areas that according to Hakkari displaced
about 200,000 Christians, mostly are staying in the Kurdistan Region.
“We do not want to be part of the possible Sunni autonomous region in
Iraq,” Hakkari stated, claiming the Sunnis in Nineveh discriminate
against Christians in the area.