ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A government entity tasked with dismantling the remnants of Iraq’s toppled Baath regime on Monday revealed documents detailing how the Baath forcibly displaced dozens of Kurdish and Turkmen families from the multiethnic province of Kirkuk, under the pretext of “security concerns.”
In a statement posted on Facebook, the Supreme National Commission for Accountability and Justice shared an image of a “historical document” that dates back to 1999. The document outlines “a systematic migration plan and forced evacuation operations” targeting Kurdish and Turkmen families during the rule of the Saddam Hussein-led Baath regime.
The Commission noted that the document details “the declared causes of deportations, the number of families and individuals affected and the fate of their belongings,” highlighting that alleged “security” concerns were the sole pretext cited for the forced displacement.
The document reveals five separate displacement orders issued between January 18 and August 16 of 1999. Each order involved the expulsion of dozens of Kurdish and Turkmen families from Kirkuk city, who were relocated to the Kurdistan Region’s eastern Sulaimani province.
According to the document, families were forced to leave within two to five days of the orders’ issuance. They were permitted to take their household furniture, but banned from bringing electrical appliances. Their real estate and other immovable possessions were confiscated and seized as “state property.”
These documents “aren't just numbers and dates - they represent real-life stories of families uprooted from their homes,” the Commission said, adding that the findings “serve as a reminder of the importance of documenting history to preserve collective memory and ensure past tragedies are never repeated.”
Historical context
In 1975, the Iraqi government declared several Kurdish villages in Kirkuk as prohibited oil zones, stripping residents of their land rights. Just two years later, the now-dissolved Baath Supreme Revolutionary Court Decree No. 949 redistributed the land to Arab settlers.
Under toppled Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, the Baath regime’s Arabization policy intensified further with the aim of maintaining long-term control of Kirkuk’s vast oil reserves by altering its ethnic composition.
From the 1970s until the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, tens of Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrians were expelled from their homes and replaced with Arab families.
Although Iraq dissolved the Revolutionary Council after 2003, many of its decrees have not been formally repealed, including those tied to demographic engineering in disputed areas such as Kirkuk.
Reversing Baath-era policies
In 2005, Iraq introduced Article 140 to reverse the demographic engineering carried out under Baathist rule. However, progress has been slow and inconsistent.
Iraq’s parliament in January passed a land restitution law to return property confiscated from Kurds and Turkmen during the Baath era. Covering approximately 300,000 dunams (around 750 square kilometers) in Kirkuk and other disputed territories, the law builds on a July 2023 Council of Ministers decision to revoke Baath-era decrees.
Ratified in February, the legislation was championed by Kurdish and Turkmen political parties determined to undo decades of forced displacement. Much of the seized land was initially restricted for oil-related purposes and later reassigned to Arab settlers.
In March, the Iraqi justice ministry formed a special committee to oversee the law’s implementation and suspended all land dealings in Kirkuk. Justice Minister Khalid Shwani then promised that enforcement would begin within two months. However, local farmers say they are still waiting.
