Erbil and al-Sulaymaniyah: The sources of division among the protesting teachers

Shafaq News/ Teachers from Halabja, Sharazur, Sayd Sadiq, and Penjwen plan to protest in front of the house of Bafel Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), in Dabashan in al-Sulaymaniyah, on Sunday.

Sources told Shafaq News that teachers also intend to stage a demonstration in front of the Council of Ministers building of the Kurdistan Regional Government in Erbil, because their demands have not been met.

Since the start of the new academic year on September 13 last year, teachers and lecturers in al-Sulaymaniyah and other parts of KRI have been on strike because of the late payment of employee salaries. This is due to the deadlock in talks with Baghdad to release the region's share of the federal budget for this year.

Delshad Mirani, a member of the dissenting Teachers' Council in al-Sulaymaniyah, said that the teachers of al-Sulaymaniyah would not join those protests planned by some of (Halabja, Sharazur, Sayd Sadiq, and Penjwen) teachers. He expected those protests to fail and not to take place.

Delshad Mirani had previously revealed that “the plans for demanding rights were progressing towards the objectives, affirming that the demonstrations, civil pressure and classroom boycott would continue until the demands were fulfilled.”

Regarding their future plans, Delshad stated that “the protests next week would be in the capital, Erbil, in front of the Council of Ministers building, to demand the transfer of the employee lists to the federal government so that it could pay the employee salaries.”

It is noteworthy that all the schools have welcomed the students and restarted their work, but some schools (in Halabja, Koy Sanjaq, Qaladiza and Darbandikhan) remain shut and the strike goes on.