Iraq
Kurdish residents of Kirkuk's Arafa neighborhood hold sit-in protests on January 15, 2024. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Residents of a disputed Kirkuk neighborhood on Monday staged a sit-in protest against a lawsuit filed by an Iraqi oil company, calling for the confiscation of their houses on account of them belonging to the oil ministry.
Hundreds of Kurdish families who were pushed out of Kirkuk as a result of Saddam Hussein’s Arabization movement returned to the city following the Baathist regime’s fall in 2003. Left without a home, a number of the families took up residence in a residential complex in Arafa neighborhood, previously inhabited by members of the Baathist party.
The houses in the neighborhood were property of the finance ministry and the land belonged to the oil ministry.
In recent days, arrest warrants have been issued for the inhabitants of a number of the houses in the neighborhood on the grounds of them being “fugitives from justice” for not attending a court session for a lawsuit filed by the state-run North Oil Company, asking the families to hand over the houses on the basis of them not being their property.
A directive has been issued to prohibit those accused of evading the law from traveling and visiting official institutions. The residents also say that their credit and electronic cards and bank accounts have been blocked.
Kurdish residents of the neighborhood on Monday accused Kirkuk local authorities of pursuing an Arabization policy and claimed that they had never been notified about the lawsuit nor summoned to court.
In a presser, they pled their case with Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, and called on the top Kurdish parties in the city -The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP)- to join their forces and work together to prevent further injustices towards the province’s Kurdish population.
“We were subjected to persecution, genocide, and forced displacement outside the province during the reign of the former regime. Following the change in Iraq’s governance regime in 2003, and our return to Kirkuk province, we began residing in an incomplete residential complex belonging to the North Oil Company. We reconstructed the houses at our expense, during varying periods, and using large amounts of money due to the fact that we had no residences to shelter our families,” said the residents in their plea.
They called on Sudani to review their case and find an appropriate solution for their issues while expressing hope for a quick response.
Dilan Ghafoor, a Kirkuk MP in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw that she has discussed the Arafa issue with Iraq’s oil minister, stressing that the latter’s response “had a positive indication.”
Accusations of a resurgence of the Arabization movement have recently been made in other parts of Kirkuk, with the residents of Newroz neighborhood protesting an attempt by the Iraqi army to seize control of the area and their houses.
Forces of the Iraqi army have been stationed in Newroz since early January, demanding families residing there to evacuate their homes on the grounds that the neighborhood is an official property of the defense ministry.
Iraqi Justice Minister Khalid Shwani on Saturday told Rudaw that the troops were set to withdraw from the neighborhood, following a decree from the General Secretariat of the Iraqi Council of Ministers to cease the operation. The withdrawal has yet to be seen through.
The houses in the Newroz neighborhood were previously inhabited by members of the Baath party. After the fall of the regime, Kurdish families from Kirkuk who had been displaced to other parts of the country returned to the neighborhood and took up residence in those houses.
The Arabization movement was part of Hussein’s Baathist regime campaign against the Kurds, in which Arab families would be resettled in disputed areas in hopes of establishing an Arab majority, pushing Kurdish families out in the process.
Kirkuk is a multiethnic city home to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen, as well as an Assyrian minority. It was under joint administration before 2014, when Kurds took full control after Iraqi forces withdrew in the face of a brazen offensive by the Islamic State (ISIS) group threatening the city. Kurds held Kirkuk until October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces retook control and expelled the Peshmerga forces after the province took part in Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum.
Comments
Rudaw moderates all comments submitted on our website. We welcome comments which are relevant to the article and encourage further discussion about the issues that matter to you. We also welcome constructive criticism about Rudaw.
To be approved for publication, however, your comments must meet our community guidelines.
We will not tolerate the following: profanity, threats, personal attacks, vulgarity, abuse (such as sexism, racism, homophobia or xenophobia), or commercial or personal promotion.
Comments that do not meet our guidelines will be rejected. Comments are not edited – they are either approved or rejected.
Post a comment