Khanaqin prepares for inaugural date and folk-arts festival
Shafaq News- Khanaqin
Khanaqin, a Kurdish-majority district in Diyala province, is preparing to host its first Dates and Folk Arts Festival, bringing together about 50 exhibitors, more than 300 varieties of dates, and artists and craftspeople from across Iraq, including the Kurdistan Region.
Hussam Al-Din Al-Agha, head of the organizing committee and a board member of Dar Al-Shaheed Salam Cultural Center, told Shafaq News that preparations were complete for the three-day event, scheduled for Oct. 9-11 at the city’s new corniche.
Growers from across Diyala, he said, will showcase their produce alongside handicrafts and local products from the Kurdistan Region, while groups from Khanaqin and Al-Sulaymaniyah will stage musical and folk performances and artists from Baghdad, Basra, Karbala, Najaf, Al-Anbar, Mosul, and the Kurdistan Region will create works inspired by the city’s landscapes and landmarks.
The event will coincide with the opening of the corniche, which organizers hope to establish as a venue for future cultural, artistic, and tourism activities. Al-Agha added that the gathering also aims to strengthen cultural and commercial ties with other parts of Iraq through agriculture, handicrafts, and traditional arts.
Located in eastern Diyala near the Iranian border, Khanaqin lies outside the Kurdistan Region but is among the disputed territories claimed by both Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
Parts of these areas were subjected to Arabization under the former Baath Party government, which displaced Kurds and other groups and resettled Arab families in their place. Article 140 of Iraq’s 2005 constitution established a three-stage process to determine their status: reversing the effects of those policies, holding a census, and then a local referendum on whether each area joins the Kurdistan Region.
The process was not completed by its Dec. 31, 2007 deadline. Iraq’s Federal Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that Article 140 remains in force until its provisions are implemented.
