Latest news with #Arabization
Rudaw Net
3 days ago
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Kirkuk landowners face arrests, lawsuits despite land restitution law
Also in Iraq Iraqi top court to hear case against Kurdistan electricity prices Iraq arrests seven ISIS suspects in separate operations Iraq, Turkey discuss water crisis amid claims of unmet release commitments Iraq arrests 23 suspected ISIS members over plot to target Arbaeen pilgrims: Judiciary A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Several months after Iraq's parliament passed the long-awaited land restitution law, Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk say they are still facing arrests, lawsuits, and harassment from the Iraqi army, with no signs of meaningful change on the ground. Iraq's parliament passed the land restitution bill on January 21, aiming to return properties confiscated from Kurds and Turkmen under former dictator Saddam Hussein's Arabization program. The law applies to around 300,000 dunams of land in Kirkuk and other disputed areas and follows a July 2023 decision by the Council of Ministers to revoke Baath-era decrees. During an episode of Rudaw's Legel Ranj program, a Kurdish farmer from Kirkuk said that 'it is the same military rule over us… Nothing has changed.' Another farmer, Ibrahim Topzawayi, said he has received no support from Kurdish lawmakers. 'I am very dissatisfied with them.' In late July, Topzawayi was sentenced to six months in prison after the Iraqi army accused him of building a house on land it claims belongs to the defense ministry. His sentence was suspended due to his age and clean criminal record. Topzawayi maintains the disputed land was originally owned by his family before being seized under the Baath regime's Arabization policy. Topzawa, his village in Kirkuk province, was one of many areas targeted for Arab settlement by decree of the Baath Supreme Revolutionary Court. Another man from Dibis district's Taq Taq area said, 'My grandfather has been in that village since 1889… none of the [Arab settlers] were there at the time.' Some families hold title deeds dating back centuries. 'Our household has a title deed belonging to our grandfather dating back to 1815. We have hung it in our living room,' one villager said. Farmers also accused settlers of exploiting political connections to renew land contracts, effectively bypassing existing laws. 'It is ridiculous that we are implementing laws from the defunct [Baath] regime,' said Sozan Mansour, a Kurdish lawmaker from Diyala province, who was a guest on the show. She added that similar problems persist in disputed areas of Salahaddin province. Political and administrative obstacles 'The Arab people should not have moved to own [laws from] the Baathist fascist regime. Now some of them consider themselves its inheritors,' said Abdullah Mirwais, head of Kirkuk's agriculture committee. 'Never in this country has there been a good will for coexistence.' In mid-March, the Iraqi justice ministry announced the formation of a 'specialized committee' to implement the land restitution law, suspending all land dealings in Kirkuk until the process begins. Committee member Saadiya Abbas said the guidelines would benefit farmers and could be implemented within a month of approval by the Council of Ministers and the prime minister. However, Mirwais warned that 'the problem is that laws are issued but not implemented,' citing a lack of 'good intention for coexistence.' Mansour agreed, saying that enforcement requires both domestic and international political pressure. Sati' Nasih, representing Topzawa farmers, pointed out that residents have been waiting for Article 140 of the constitution to be implemented for 18 years, making them skeptical of Baghdad's promises. 'Please, let the Kurdish parties in Kirkuk be united,' one farmer urged. 'If we are united, no one can occupy a single piece of our land.' Mohammed Amin, head of the farmers' defense committee in Kirkuk's Sargaran district, said, 'Any decision will be implemented if there is a strong political will behind it.' In March, Amin was released on bail after a soldier accused him of insulting the Iraqi army, following a viral February video showing the soldier forcefully removing him from his tractor. Tensions have flared repeatedly in Sargaran, particularly in mid-February when Iraqi security forces blocked Kurdish farmers from accessing Baath-era seized lands now held by Arab settlers, a move seen as an attempt to alter Kirkuk's demographics. The land restitution law Ratified by the presidency in mid-February, the land restitution law was championed by Kurdish and Turkmen parties who have long sought to reverse demographic changes imposed in the 1970s, when land was seized under the pretext of being in restricted oil zones and redistributed to Arab settlers. Justice Minister Khalid Shwani announced in March that implementation would begin within two months. However, as the situation in Kirkuk shows, farmers are still waiting. The oil-rich, multiethnic province remains a flashpoint in the disputes between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the federal government, with Article 140's mandate to reverse Baathist demographic changes still unfulfilled more than two decades after Hussein's fall.
Shafaq News
07-07-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
KRG pushes back against Qara Tapa upgrade
Shafaq News - Diyala The federal plan to upgrade Qara Tapa from a sub-district to a district and include Koks within its boundaries is political and unconstitutional, the Kurdistan Region's Garmian Administration stated on Monday. 'Koks is part of the Kurdistan Region and was formally integrated after 2003 through official regional procedures,' the administration stated. 'Any attempt to detach it from Garmian constitutes a legal violation and will not be accepted.' Residents of Koks, regardless of ethnic or sectarian background, reject the proposal and insist on remaining under Kurdistan's administrative and political jurisdiction, the statement added. The Garmian Administration affirmed it will pursue all legal and political measures to block the plan and preserve Koks' current status. Earlier, Iraqi lawmaker Karwan Yarwais described the Planning Ministry's move as a direct breach of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, which governs the resolution of disputed territories between Baghdad and Erbil. 'Altering administrative boundaries without resolving Article 140 reflects a return to the Arabization tactics of former regimes," he told Shafaq News. On July 2, Iraq's Ministry of Planning confirmed that Deputy Prime Minister and Planning Minister Mohammed Ali Tamim had approved the creation of the Qara Tapa district, encompassing the Jabara (21092) and Koks (21093) sub-districts under a new national administrative designation.
Shafaq News
04-07-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Kurdish MP slams Diyala redistricting: Breach of Iraq constitution
Shafaq News - Diyala Upgrading Qara Tapa in Diyala to district status and merging nearby subdistricts is a violation of Article 140 of Iraq's constitution, Kurdish lawmaker Karwan Yarwais stated on Friday. In a statement, Yarwais warned that the Ministry of Planning's decision to incorporate Jabbarah, Qaws Qulah, and Kulajo into the new administrative unit violates constitutional protections prohibiting changes to disputed territories until Article 140 is fully implemented. Article 140 of Iraq's Constitution mandates the normalization, census, and referendum process to resolve the status of disputed territories between the Iraqi government and the Kurdistan Region, including Kirkuk and areas in Nineveh, Diyala, and Saladin. The process was constitutionally required to conclude by the end of 2007 but remains unimplemented. 'This move mirrors past Arabization policies pursued under the former [Baath] regime,' Yarwais stated, referencing historical boundary manipulation in disputed areas. Recognizing Qara Tapa as a district must be matched by constitutional recognition of restoring Kalar, Kifri, and Chamchamal to Kirkuk — areas previously removed as part of demographic restructuring, he argued. The lawmaker urged Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani to block what he called an unconstitutional shift and called on President Abdul Latif Rashid, as constitutional guarantor, to prevent further imbalance in disputed regions.
Rudaw Net
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Efforts intensify to restore 900,000 dunams of confiscated lands in Kirkuk: MP
Also in Iraq Dust storm hospitalizes over 3,700 in Iraq Over 1,300 suffocation cases reported in southern Iraq amid dust storm Iraqi parliament passes bill to make Halabja the 19th province Iraqi strike kills suspected ISIS members in Salahaddin A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Efforts are underway to return more than 900,000 dunams of land confiscated from Kurdish citizens in Kirkuk province, a Kurdish lawmaker representing Kirkuk in the Iraqi parliament told Rudaw on Tuesday. The vast tracts of land were seized under decisions issued by a Ba'ath-era commission known as the Northern Affairs Committee, which was tasked with overseeing the Arabization campaign in the provinces of the Kurdistan Region, as well as in Kirkuk and other disputed areas with significant Kurdish, Turkmen, and Christian populations. Kirkuk MP Habib confirmed to Rudaw that efforts have intensified 'in the past two weeks to address the issue of Kurdish citizens' lands that were seized under the decisions of the Northern Affairs Committee of the defunct Ba'ath Party, estimated at around 900,000 dunams.' These lands were supposed to be returned to their original Kurdish owners or usufructuaries in accordance with Iraqi Cabinet Resolution No. 29 of 2012, but the decision was never implemented. Cabinet decision No. 29 of 2012, orders the cancellation of all decisions related to agricultural lands owned or usufructed by non-Arabs in Kirkuk province, whose contracts had previously been annulled or whose usufruct rights were extinguished by the Northern Affairs Committee of the former Ba'ath regime. The decision aims to restore the legal status of the lands to what it was before those Ba'ath-era decisions, and it is considered binding and enforceable. MP Habib said that stated that 'the issue will soon be resolved per a new agreement [among political blocs],' and added that Kurdish citizens whose lands were seized, or whose usufruct rights were annulled, would be required to fill out official forms to initiate the process of reclaiming them. The Northern Affairs Committee of the dissolved Ba'ath Party had previously revoked the contracts of Kurdish citizens that granted them the right to own or work on these lands, and reallocated the properties to Arab settlers who had been transferred to Kirkuk as part of a policy aimed at altering its demographic composition. For his part, Kakarash Sadiq, head of the office for the implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution, told Rudaw that the issue has two dimensions. On one hand, it involves lands whose agricultural contracts were extinguished, covering more than 3,000 dunams. On the other hand, it concerns properties that were fully expropriated, after which new contracts were issued to Arab settlers. According to Sadiq, this latter category falls under the jurisdiction of the Iraqi justice ministry, and official correspondence will be sent to the first and second real estate registration departments in Kirkuk to begin the legal process of returning these lands to their rightful owners.
Shafaq News
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Shafaq News
Leader Barzani on Anfal campaign: Iraq must end Chauvinistic actions
Shafaq News/ On Monday, Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani commemorated the 37th anniversary of the Anfal campaign, calling on the Iraqi government to prevent the repetition of "chauvinistic policies" against the Kurds. In a statement, Barzani described the campaign carried out by the former Iraqi regime as "one of the most horrific crimes of the last century," during which more than 180,000 citizens were martyred or went missing due to inhumane operations that affected all areas of the Kurdistan Region. The campaign, he added, coincided with "chemical bombings, Arabization policies, forced displacement, and the destruction of thousands of villages and the economic infrastructure," emphasizing that these crimes were part of a broader plan aimed at targeting the existence and identity of the Kurdish people. The leader called on the Iraqi government to "assume legal and moral responsibility for compensating the victims," stressing that the true honor for the martyrs of Anfal lies in uniting efforts to serve the homeland and build a brighter future. About The Campaign The Anfal campaign, which began in 1986, escalated in 1988 and continued through 1989, was led by Ali Hassan al-Majid, also known as "Chemical Ali." He served as Secretary General of the Ba'ath Party's Northern Bureau and military governor, with military operations directed by former Iraqi Defense Minister Sultan Hashim. On May 3, 2011, the Iraqi High Criminal Court classified the campaign as a 'crime against humanity and genocide,' convicting al-Majid, who was also behind the chemical attack on Halabja. He was executed on January 25, 2010. The Kurdistan Regional Government has designated April 14 as an annual day of remembrance for the victims of this genocide.
