ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A Kurdish official in Kirkuk said on Monday that they have submitted over 3,000 cases of land seizures to the Iraqi justice ministry for compensation, marking the first step in the recently passed property restitution law that seeks to return lands to their original owners.
“Over 3,000 cases have been submitted [to the Iraqi justice ministry], including individuals who were forcibly displaced or had their lands seized,” Kakarash Siddiq, head of the Kirkuk office of the Article 140 implementation committee, told Rudaw.
The Iraqi presidency in mid-February ratified the land restitution law aimed at returning lands confiscated under the Baath regime to their original owners. The law pertains to 300,000 dunams of land belonging to Kurdish and Turkmen owners in Kirkuk and other disputed areas.
These lands were previously given to Arab settlers, a tactic believed to have been part of the Baathist regime’s efforts to alter the demographic makeup of disputed regions.
One such decree, issued in 1977, revoked land ownership rights in 14 locations, including areas within Dibis district in Kirkuk. Some of the disputed lands include those in Shanagha village northwest of Kirkuk, which became a source of conflict between Kurdish farmers and the Iraqi army in February.
Following the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, Iraq adopted a policy of de-Arabization under Article 140 of the constitution, aiming to reverse the demographic changes imposed by former dictator Saddam Hussein.
“Guidelines [to execute the restitution] will be enacted in the next two or three months”, Sabah Habib, a Kurdish MP from Kirkuk in the Iraqi parliament, told Rudaw on Monday.
The law, however, does not apply to individuals who, during the Ba’ath regime, received financial compensation in exchange for their confiscated properties.
“Only lands that were previously designated for restitution but never returned to their original owners would be reinstated,” Siddiq explained.
The restitution process is expected to impact around 300,000 dunams of land belonging to Kurdish and Turkmen residents in Kirkuk.
