ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish farmers have appealed a court ruling that handed over land to Arab settlers in the disputed Tuz Khurmatu district of Salahaddin province, according to an official.
“Nearly two weeks ago, the Khurmatu court issued a ruling in favor of the Arab settlers,” Hussein Ali Mohammed, director of agriculture in Tuz Khurmatu, told Rudaw.
The court order granted hundreds of dunams of land (one Iraqi dunam is approximately 2,500 square meters) to eight Arabs following the registration of a land deed.
Mohammed said that eight Kurdish farmers have submitted an appeal to the district court requesting the return of the lands that they say they own.
The disputed lands are located in the Tapa Sawza area of Tuz Khurmatu, a diverse district home to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen located about 65 kilometers south of Kirkuk city.
Mohammed said that in 2012 the agriculture department registered the lands under the names of Kurdish farmers based on a Council of Ministers decision. However, official records in Tikrit, the capital of Salahaddin province, still listed the lands under the Arab’s names.
The Iraqi presidency in mid-February ratified the land restitution law that returns 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 disputed areas.
Second deputy speaker of the Iraqi parliament, Shakhawan Abdullah, confirmed to Rudaw in mid-February that following the presidency’s ratification, the land restitution law will be implemented imminently, as “there are no longer any obstacles to its implementation.”
The Baath regime had a policy of Arabization in disputed, multi-ethnic areas, forcing Kurds and Turkmen off their lands and bringing in Arab settlers. Post-2003, Baghdad has taken measures to reverse the demographic changes, but there are frequent disputes.
