Iraq
Fahmi Burhan, the head of the Kurdistan Region's board for disputed territories, speaking to Rudaw on July 23, 2024. Photo: Screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Conducting a general population census in Kirkuk at this stage will result in greater problems and is a threat to the Kurdish population, according to a Kurdish official, who claimed that there is an attempt to carry out demographic change by increasing the rate of Arab settlers.
Fahmi Burhan, the head of the Kurdistan Region's board for disputed territories, told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih on Tuesday, that there has been an “unexpected” surge in the number of Arab settlers in Kirkuk, accusing local authorities of reviving the Baathist regime’s Arabization movement in the disputed province.
The Arabization movement was part of Saddam Hussein’s campaign against the Kurds, in which Arab families would be resettled in disputed areas in hopes of establishing an Arab majority, pushing Kurdish families out in the process. Kurdish language and culture were effectively banned.
“We have received reports that Arabs are creating villages in the outskirts of Kirkuk and hence are completely distorting the province’s demography,” said Burhan, adding that any attempt to carry out demographic change in Kirkuk is unconstitutional until the implementation of Article 140.
Ali Qallayi, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official in the disputed areas, claimed that an Arabization process has been ongoing in Kirkuk since October 16, 2017, predicting that Kurds would lose their majority status in the province in the coming decade.
“If the situation continues like this, I can see according to the studies we have done, that Arabs would become the majority in Kirkuk by the next two provincial elections in 2032 or 2033,” Qallayi told Rudaw.
Kirkuk is a multi-ethnic city home to Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen. The city was under joint administration before 2014, when Kurds took full control after Iraqi forces withdrew in the face of the Islamic State (ISIS) group. Kurds held the city until October 16, 2017, when Iraqi forces retook control and expelled Kurdish security forces following the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) independence referendum.
Kurdish officials in Kirkuk have accused the Arab component of carrying out demographic change in the province over the past seven years, while Arab and Turkmen officials have accused the Kurdish component of attempting the same process between 2003 and 2017.
Iraq will carry out its long-awaited general population census in November. It will be the first general population count conducted since 1997 and the first to include the Kurdistan Region’s provinces since 1987.
Iraq’s 2005 constitution lays out a path to resolve a dispute over whether Kirkuk and other disputed territory in the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahaddin should come within the borders of the Kurdistan Region or fall under the control of the federal government. It also includes measures aimed at rectifying Baathist-era Arabization policies.
Article 140 dictates three steps - normalization of the situation, a census, and a referendum - to be completed by 2007. It has never been done. The failure to fully implement the article has been cited as one of the main reasons for continued attempts at demographic change in these areas.
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