“The fair will bring together a distinguished group of Arab and local publishing houses in the largest cultural, scientific, literary, and journalistic festival and forum,” said a Sunday statement from the Kirkuk governor’s office.
Wasif Hamdi Shweikhy, head of the fair’s organizing committee, told Rudaw on Wednesday that approximately 70 publishing houses will participate in the fair - 12 of which are Kurdish, while the others will come from Iraq and regional countries including Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Syria.
The fair, located in the city’s White Palace Hall, will run from September 25 to October 2. It is organized by local authorities in the province and supervised by Iraq’s Ministry of Culture, Tourism, and Antiquities.
European publishing houses were also invited but were unable to participate due to logistical reasons, according to Shweikhy.
Sabah Habib, a Kurdish lawmaker in the Iraqi parliament representing Kirkuk, told Rudaw English that certain factors are behind successive administrations' failure to hold an international book fair in the province.
“It could be related to the special status of the province,” he suggested, without elaborating further.
Habib is affiliated with the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Rebwar Taha, a member of the Kurdish party, is the incumbent governor of the multi-ethnic province. The lawmaker welcomed the decision to open the international book fair.
Iraq hosts two major book fairs annually, the Erbil International Book Fair and the Iraq International Book Fair in Baghdad. Sulaimani also hosted its 6th book fair last November.
But in Kirkuk, a city disputed between the Iraqi federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), it is the first time an international book fair is set to take place.
In the vacuum of the political disputes between Baghdad and Erbil, Kirkuk has fallen behind other provinces in many aspects, such as public services, construction and development, tourism, as well as the arts and culture sectors.