Arab settlers, protected by Iraqi security forces, have continued to encroach on villages and farmland in western Kirkuk province, driving out Kurdish and Turkmen residents. In the village of Qutan, just two of the 40 Kurdish families remain a month after Arab settlers arrived. One family home has been torched. The owner of the other is threatened with eviction or even death. Both have been given permission to stay on the condition they do not plow their farmland until ownership of the land is established. Instead of relying on the deeds to the land, Arab settlers are instead using the Arabization orders from the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to stake their claim. The land was handed over to Arab settlers in the 1970s and 80s. After the fall of the regime, the Kurdish owners were invited back to their land and the Arab settlers compensated. Since the Iraqi Army and Shiite paramilitias took over Kirkuk in October 2017, these Arab settlers have returned.
