SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Four political parties in Kurdistan met Saturday and expressed their support for popular demands, days before expected protests in the city of Sulaimani.

The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), Gorran, the Islamic Group (Komal) and Islamic Union (KIU) issued a statement following the meeting, expressing the people’s right to peaceful demonstrations.

The largest Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was not part of the meeting.

The four-party statement stressed: full support of popular demands; the people’s right to demonstrate peacefully, the responsibility of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) to provide salaries for civil servants and improving people’s lives.

In addition, the Sulaimaini Governorate security committee met with officials of the four parties plus the KDP on Saturday and discussed protests planned for this Tuesday by civil activists.

Sardar Qadir, acting governor of Sulaimani, said at a press conference after the security meeting that all parties “agreed to protect the security of the city, citizens, all the government and political party offices and buildings.”

The protests have been planned by civil activists and led mainly by civil servants in Sulaimani protesting at not being paid their salaries. They call themselves the “Board for Dissatisfied People.”

Board Members have claimed they have been subject to abduction attempts on Saturday
Awat Hassan told Rudaw he felt an unknown car is following him and his child in Kurdsat neighbourhood in Suleimani. He said he started to take photos of the car , but then some unknown men from that car emerged to “abduct” him. “Then I threw away my phone and they started to look for my phone, at this time I run away”.

Hassan said the unknown men took his car where he had left his child in, and then parked the car with the child inside it a few blocks away.

Also a member of the KIU, Adil Hassan, who is part of the Board claimed he was “abducted” for three hours by a force he claimed had introduced themselves as “counter crim force” and later he was released.

Sulaimaini authorities have denied they were involved in any of the incidents claimed by Board members and other groups.


Protests at unpaid salaries that erupted last October in Sulaimani turned violent, with some people killed and injured.

Kurdistan is undergoing a severe financial crisis due to the war with the Islamic State (ISIS), low oil prices and a dispute with Baghdad over non-payments from the national budget.



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