Iraqi government lifts harvest ban on Kirkuk’s Kurdish farmers

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi government has removed a ban on Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk that had barred them from harvesting wheat on their farmland, the deputy parliament speaker said on Saturday. 

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani ordered the removal of the ban, effective Saturday, Shakhawan Abdullah, deputy speaker of Iraqi parliament, said in a Facebook post.

The Iraqi army had prevented Kurdish farmers in Palkana village from harvesting their wheat after Arab settlers claimed to have a share in the produce and set up tents on the land in a bid to pressure the federal government into backing their claims.

The dispute dates back to the Baathist era. Land belonging to several disputed villages was taken away from Kurdish farmers by the Iraqi government in 1975 on grounds that they were located in prohibited oil zones. Two years later, in 1977, under Decree No. 949 issued by the Baath Supreme Revolutionary Council, they were given to Arabs who were resettled into the area.

This Arabization of the province has been a historical 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 Constitution, which aims to reverse the demographic changes carried out by Saddam Hussein.

Recently, however, Kurds have complained that the policy of Arabization has been revived.

Mohammed Amin, a representative of Kurdish farmers in Palkana, told Rudaw on Friday that the Iraqi army banned them from harvesting around 50,000 acres of land in the village. He said they informed Kurdish lawmakers in Baghdad of the situation in the hopes that the federal parliament would intervene.

“Where in the world does the army intervene in the affairs of farmers?” asked Ahmed Aziz, a farmer in Palkana who on Friday brought his deed to the Arab settlers as proof of his ownership of the land.