Arab settlers have recently made renewed attempts to seize land belonging to Kurdish and Turkmen farmers in Kirkuk province. After rounds of meetings with the Arab settlers and the farmers, a parliamentary committee reached a temporary solution earlier this month.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani formed a ministerial committee consisting of representatives from Iraq’s justice, finance, defense, oil and agriculture ministries to meet with both sides in order to reach a solution on the matter.
“There is not much seriousness within the Iraqi government to solve the problems in these areas. They lack a clear vision, as the issues are deep and require a clearer approach,” Fahmi Burhan, the head of the Kurdistan Region’s board for disputed territories told Rudaw.
Burhan added, “We in the Kurdistan Regional Government must increase our efforts [to solve the issues.”
In the meetings, Kurdish and Turkmen farmers presented documents to the committee which they said support their claim of the disputed farmlands.
The dispute between Arab settlers and Kurdish farmers dates back to the Baathist era. Land belonging to 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.
Kurds have been calling for the dissolution of decrees issued by the collapsed regime.
A bill for the dissolution of the Baathist court’s decrees has been presented to the Iraqi parliament, but it has yet to be passed due to a consensus between Shiite and Sunni lawmakers.
The Arabization of the province has been a long-standing flashpoint between Baghdad and the Kurds.
After 2003 and the fall of the Baath regime, Iraq began a policy of de-Arabization within the framework of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution, which aims to reverse the demographic changes carried out by former dictator Hussein. The article has never been fully implemented, however, and land disputes still exist.
Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk earlier this month started harvesting their crops after a delegation from the federal parliament temporarily resolved a land dispute with Arab settlers.
