ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – The Iraqi parliament on Tuesday adjourned its session after tensions rose between Kurdish and Sunni lawmakers over a proposed bill to resolve land disputes in Kirkuk, an MP told Rudaw.
The parliament was voting on a bill that would return land confiscated under the former Baathist regime to its original Kurdish and Turkmen owners. The vote was scheduled for last month but then excluded from a session, prompting Kurdish parties to boycott the parliament meeting.
Dara Sekaniani, a member of the legislature’s legal committee, said that the Sunnis are blocking the voting process on the bill. It had passed the first and second readings, and the Sunnis refused to allow the vote to take place, to the ire of the Kurds and Turkmens.
“The bill had been put on the agenda several times, but the session has not been completed due to Sunni protests,” Sekaniani, a Kurd, told Rudaw.
Multi-ethnic regions known as the disputed areas, particularly the oil-rich province of Kirkuk, have long been a point of contention between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government. In the 1970s, Kurdish and Turkmen lands were seized by the Baath regime under the pretext they were located in prohibited oil zones and the land was given to Arabs who were resettled into the area.
The Baath regime’s notorious Revolutionary Command Council was responsible for seizing the lands, issuing decrees and transferring Kurdish and Turkmen properties to the defense ministry and municipality.
The Iraqi government’s draft consists of five articles and refers to the cancellation of eight decisions of the Revolutionary Command Council, but was amended during negotiations and other decisions were added to return more land to the Kurds and Turkmens.
“The legal committee amended it [the draft] and added other decisions,” Sekaniani said. “The Nineveh Plains, Makhmour in Nineveh province, and other areas such as Dujail in Salahaddin province have been added.”
Srwa Mohammed, another MP, told Rudaw that the Sunnis first left the parliament hall and later returned, causing tensions to break out. She explained that the government’s draft included the cancelation of eight decisions but the legislature’s legal committee increased it to 18.
While the Sunnis want to vote on the government’s draft, the Kurds insist that the legal committee’s amendments be included, according to Mohammed.
Following the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, Iraq began a policy of de-Arabization under Article 140 of the constitution, aiming to reverse the demographic changes imposed by former dictator Saddam Hussein.
In July 2023, the Council of Ministers unanimously approved a draft law revoking all Baath-era rulings that had confiscated agricultural lands from Kurds and Turkmen in Kirkuk. However, restoring the land to its original owners requires the passage of an additional law.
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