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Iraqs northern city of Kirkuk becomes a disputed area as the local provincial council decides to conduct a referendum on its status.

Photo by: AFP

The Kurdish Regional Government flag (L) and the Iraqi flag (R) being raised over a government building in Kirkuk, Iraq, March 28, 2017.

The dual flags of Iraq and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) wave across Kirkuk, symbolising a larger struggle overcontrol ofthe oil-rich city.

Kirkuk has been a political flashpointin Iraq for decades.

At least four minority groups Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians, and Turkmenlive there.

But the KRG has been arguing with Baghdads central government over control of the city. They say they earned that right after the Kurdish Peshmerga pushed Daesh out of the city in 2014.

"We think this flag should wave and stay here, we have shed our blood for Kirkuk for years. We have martyrs, we protected our city from Daesh, we resisted them," said Ahmet Sabir.

Iraqi Turkmen Front Deputy Chairman and MP for KirkukprovinceHasan Turan said, "By waving the flag of northern Iraq, Kurdish parties are trying to give Kirkuk a different identity. We can never accept this."

Human Rights Watch last year accusedthe KRG of forcing Sunni Arab families to leave the city. It is an accusation that the KRG denies.

TRT Worlds Zeina Awad explains tensions in Kirkuk.

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The politics of Kirkuk is a thorny problem for Iraq - TRT World