“There are more than 65 villages around Dibis, 30 of them are Kurdish and the rest have mixed ethnicities of Kurds and Arabs. In all multiethnic villages, the Kurdish residents have evacuated and in the 30 Kurdish village, either all left or few villagers remained. Some villages have tried to build a local defense force,” Abdullah Nuradin, mayor of Dibis, told Rudaw.
Ismail Omar, a resident of Qoshqaye, a village in Dibis, fled his village after October 16, when Iraqi forces and Shiite paramilitias took over the disputed territories. Now he lives in Kirkuk city. Most of Qoshqaye, about 70 households, went to Kirkuk to avoid ethnic violence at the hands of Arab forces.
“When in 2003 we returned to our village, we were really happy and thought that we live the rest of our live there. But after the October 16, military and civilian Arabs came and threatened us to evacuate our village,” Omar told Rudaw.
“Arabization after the October 16 has started from the villages around Daquq and Tuz Khurmatu and it will include areas near Prde, Shwan, and Qarah Anjir,” Mulla Farman, a member of the national council of the Change Movement (Gorran), told Rudaw.
“Those Arabs who attack the Kurdish villagers are those Shiites who were brought to Kirkuk during Saddam Hussein’s rule and now they have the support of Hashd al-Shaabi and the federal army. They have even changed the Kurdish name of villages,” Farman added.
Many villagers from areas around Kirkuk and Tuz Khurmatu also came to Sulaimani and Erbil.
Kurdish residents of Mardan, a village near Khanaqin, have also been forced to evacuate amid a wave of ISIS killings. They also suspect Shiite paramilitias are trying to push them out.
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