Tensions are high once again between Kurdish farmers and the Iraqi army in the disputed province of Kirkuk after the defense ministry filed a lawsuit against 26 farmers and landowners in the Kurdish village of Topzawa in an effort to expand a military base in the area.
“Some Iraqi army officers are supporting the Arabs in the land issue. We have asked for them to be removed from the area,” Dilan Ghafoor, head of the foreign relations committee in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw.
Disputes between Arab settlers and Kurdish farmers date back to the Baathist era. Land in several villages was taken away from Kurdish farmers by the Iraqi government in 1975 on the grounds that they were located in prohibited oil zones. Two years later, under Decree No. 949 issued by the Baath Supreme Revolutionary Court, the land was given to Arabs who were resettled in the area from elsewhere in Iraq.
Ghafoor accused the defense ministry of following the decisions of the Baathist Revolutionary Command Council and lamented that efforts to cancel the council’s decisions remain impeded by successive proposed amendments in parliament, despite a political agreement.
“The Sunni component is an obstacle and does not want the bill to be voted on and is calling for amendments to many articles that are mainly intended to prevent the bill from being voted on,” she said.
Kurdish farmers in the area have long accused the Iraqi army of aiding Arab settlers to seize their lands and longstanding disputes have heightened tensions between communities.
“Some officers who support the Arab community should leave the area. There should be moderate people who understand the situation in the area,” Ghafoor said.
“Every brigade that comes to the area implements the decisions of the Revolutionary Command Council. Because they do not understand the situation in the area, they remove Kurdish farmers from their land and arrest them on numerous charges,” the MP added.
After 2003 and the fall of the Baath regime, Iraq began a policy of de-Arabization within the framework of Article 140 of the constitution, which aims to reverse the demographic changes carried out by former dictator Saddam Hussein. The article has never been fully implemented, however, and land disputes still exist.
The land restitution bill, submitted by Kurdish lawmakers, has faced opposition from Arab legislators.
Topzawa, where tensions between Kurdish farmers and the Iraqi army are rising, has a painful history. Villagers were forcibly displaced in 1988, during Hussein’s Anfal campaign against the Kurds. Many victims of the genocide were held in a military camp in the village until they were moved to southern Iraq and massacred.
