ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Iraqi army on Thursday raided the houses of some Kurds residing in a Kirkuk neighborhood, attempting to forcibly replace them with Arabs despite efforts by Kurdish officials in Baghdad to resolve the issue.
A total of 172 families, mostly Kurds, reside in Kirkuk city’s Newroz neighborhood’s 122 houses. They recently told Rudaw that they fear they might be forced out of their homes as the Iraqi army plans to turn the neighborhood into a military base.
The army, which has been present in the neighborhood for days, began forcibly expelling some families on Thursday, locals told Rudaw.
At least three people were arrested by the army for resisting the eviction attempts.
A Kurdish man told Rudaw’s Hardi Mohammed that the army had “attacked” Kurdish residents of the neighborhood with the aim of replacing them with Arabs.
“This is like Anfal,” he said, referring to the massacre of over 182,000 Iraqi Kurds by the Baath regime decades ago. He called on Kurdish officials and politicians to rush to their aid.
“They take our people into humvees and beat them,” claimed the elderly man.
Another Kurd, whose brother is among the arrested, told Rudaw that the army did not have any documents from the court legitimizing the raids it carried out.
“They forcibly expelled Kurds only because they are Kurds,” said another local.
They refused to leave their houses. “We are not leaving here. This is the place of our ancestors,” said one of them.
Iraq’s Justice Minister Khalid Shwani, a Kurd, told Rudaw over the phone that he has spoken to relevant authorities in Baghdad to resolve the issue.
“I spoke with the prime minister [Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani]. I also sent him footage [of the expulsion]. I told him that these violations are unacceptable and are a grave attack on Newroz residents,” he said, adding that the defense minister has ordered the force currently stationed in Newroz to withdraw from the neighbourhood.
According to Rudaw reporters on the ground the withdrawal has now been seen through.
The houses in the Newroz neighborhood were previously inhabited by members of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party. After the fall of the regime, Kurdish families from Kirkuk who had been displaced to other parts of the country, returned to the neighborhood and took up residence in those houses.
Paul Bremer, the administrator of the Coalition Provisional Authority which oversaw Iraq after 2003, issued a decree to register these houses as property of the finance ministry.
A decree issued by the former Kirkuk provincial council granted the families the right to remain in the houses until the federal government provided them with compensation.
