Tal Afar - Politics and Government

Politics and Government

Tal Afar’s local government consists of a city council, local sheiks and a mayor. The mayor is appointed by the council of sheiks and confirmed by the provincial regional administrator. The mayor need not be originally from the city nor Iraqi Turkmen. As of January 2007, the present mayor (and former General) is Mayor Najim, a Sunni Arab originally from Baghdad. His wife, notably, is a Shia Arab.

The Iraqi Turkmen demographic of Tal Afar and its geographic location have made it an important city in the argument of Iraqi federalism. Historically, the area in the vicinity of the city was populated by Kurds and considered part of Kurdistan. Following a program of “Arabization” initiated by Saddam Hussein in the 1970s, large numbers of Sunni Arabs supportive of the Baathist government were moved into areas around Tal Afar in an effort to decrease the influence of Iraqi Kurds. Geographically, the region the city is located in a border area separating Kurdish lands to the north and Arab lands to the south in the al-Anbar province.

Were it not for the high population of Iraqi Turkmen, the region would most likely be absorbed by the Kurdish Autonomous Region based in Arbil. Many Iraqi Turkmen resist this happening because of historic differences with the Kurds.