Kirkuk farmers granted access to lands for winter planting

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdish farmers in Kirkuk will have temporary access to their lands for planting winter crops until a solution to their land disputes with Arab settlers is resolved, a farmers’ representative told Rudaw on Friday.

“After a meeting with Rebwar Taha, the governor of Kirkuk, in the presence of representatives of Arab settlers, except for three pieces of land that are subject to a court decision, we can work on our land this season until the problem is over,” Mohammed Amin, head of the farmers’ defense committee in Sargaran subdistrict, told Rudaw.

Arab settlers had previously presented a letter from the Iraqi military’s Joint Operations Command, claiming ownership of the land based on the 1957 census and preventing Kurds from working the fields.

Amin said that an official letter from the government has resolved the matter.

“A letter from the agriculture [ministry] was needed and yesterday it was written and sent to Kirkuk province,” Amin said, adding that the instructions will be implemented within the coming days.

Disputes between Arab settlers and Kurdish farmers date back to the Baathist era. Land in 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.

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 former dictator Saddam Hussein. The article has never been fully implemented, however, and land disputes still exist.

In May, tensions between Kurdish farmers and Arab settlers reached a boiling point near the village of Palkana when the settlers prevented farmers from harvesting their crops, citing ownership documents for the land that date back to the Baathist regime.

A bill drafted by Kurdish lawmakers seeking to return confiscated lands to their original owners is currently in the Iraqi parliament. It is one of three major pieces of legislation that are expected to be voted on soon.

 

Soran Hussein contributed to this report.