ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Roads leading to Kirkuk from Erbil and Sulaimani were unusually congested on Tuesday as natives of the disputed province returned en masse to be recorded as residents of their hometown in the significant nationwide census, with Kurdish officials stressing the outcome of the process as vital for the future of Kurds in the country.
The long-awaited process will be conducted on Wednesday and Thursday. However, it has raised concerns among some Kurdish officials about the effect of the historic demographic changes in the disputed areas, especially in the oil-rich Kirkuk.
While driving his family back to his hometown of Kirkuk to take part in the census, Saman Anwar, who currently lives in Erbil, told Rudaw that he and 30-40 other families close to him were expelled from their homes in 1987 following deliberate demographic changes and forced displacement under the Baathist regime.
Khayal Mohammed, an elderly Erbil resident, spoke to Rudaw on her way to her village near Kirkuk's Prde (Altun Kupri). She said that her village was “destroyed by bulldozers and we were expelled” by the former Iraqi regimes.
“We return out of love. My ancestors were all there… even our graveyards are there,” she said.
Kirkuk, along with other disputed territories in Diyala, Nineveh, and Salahaddin, has a diverse population and was subject to Arabization policies under Saddam Hussein’s rule, where Kurdish inhabitants were displaced and their lands given to Arab settlers. Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution outlines a process for resolving disputes over these territories.
Dilan Salahadin lives in Kirkuk. On Tuesday, he dedicated himself to greeting returning fellow Kurdish residents with welcoming pamphlets and words of encouragement.
"Our houses are at your disposal… this is your city," Salahadin told drivers arriving in the city.
“I ask all Kurds who are from Kirkuk to return,” said Najat Ahmad Raza from Kirkuk’s Daquq district.
Sabir Mohammed, head of Kirkuk police’s media office, said that they “will ease transportation for those who are from other cities and want to return to their own city for the census,” adding that only after the end of Tuesday will checkpoints close.
‘Return to your homes’
“Return to your homes, today is the last opportunity,” Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Planning Minister Dara Rashid told Rudaw on Tuesday.
He denied claims that people do not need to return to their hometowns.
Guhdar Mohammed Ali, head of the technical and field division of the Kurdistan Region’s census team, told Rudaw on Sunday that during the census records will be taken of the current place of residence and place of origin.
“Whoever needs any support, who does not have a place [to stay]… we as the [regional government]… will fully support them,” Rashid assured.
“Those from the Article 140 [disputed] areas, it does not cost them anything to return to their homes,” he said, emphasizing that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has made arrangements to support returnees.
The KRG Council of Ministers on Thursday ordered a week-long public holiday to enable its civil servants and students, who are original residents of the disputed areas, to return to their cities in order to participate in a crucial nationwide population census which is vital for the future of these territories.
The planning minister stressed the importance of the census, noting that its data would influence future policymaking.
“People must know that this census is very important and its data will be used in the future,” he said, warning against incorrect assumptions about the process.
He also emphasized the benefits of the census data for the Kurdistan Region.
“Our population percentage will increase, our budget will increase, our representation in the federal government will increase,” the minister emphasized.
He highlighted the demographic changes that have occurred with each census, emphasizing that the percentage of Kurds in Kirkuk had significantly decreased with each count.
Kirkuk’s Kurdish population is expected to have significantly decreased after the Baath regime's Arabization process and the ousting of the Peshmerga in October 2017 following the Kurdish independence referendum when Iraqi forces re-entered Kirkuk. In the 1957 census, Kurds made up 48 percent of Kirkuk's population, Arabs 28 percent, and Turkmen 21 percent.
“Census and the history of census[es] have been very political before. The discrimination that has been done against Kurds has also been done against Turkmen and other components in Iraq, which [can] be traced back to the census,” said Rashid.
On Monday, Shakhawan Abdullah, the second speaker of the Iraqi parliament, in a video message on Facebook said that he is “delighted that many people have returned,” encouraging natives of the disputed provinces to “preserve their identities.”
