Only 25 are Kurds out of 1,000 employed by Baghdad in Kirkuk oil fields.

Erbil: Of the nearly 1,000 people who were recently employed by the Iraqi North Oil Company (NOC) in Kirkuk, only 25 are Kurdish, displaying Baghdad’s increasing opposition to hiring technicians with Kurdish backgrounds, according to NOC manager Yousif Shwani, a Kurd. “We have been trying for some time now to increase Kurdish share of the employments, but Baghdad is making the decisions unilaterally and has not been responsive”, Shwani said. According to Shwani, the NOC management which is based in Kirkuk has little influence over the employment process as the Iraqi central government is the main provider of salaries for over 12,000 employees that currently work for the company.