ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Two Iraqi army regiments stationed at a village near Jalawla or Gulala city reportedly trying to fight against ISIS remnants in the area are not allowing villagers to return.
“Nearly 100 families have filed complaints and handed them to the governor and he has promised to help return the Kurdish families home,” a villager from Jalawla told Rudaw, adding the Iraqi forces have been stationed in their village without their consultation.
Gulala’s residents were forced to flee on October 16. Iraqi soldiers have used the homes during their deployment to the area while the original villagers say forces' aim is to impose another wave of Arabization over the Kurdish region.
Jalawla is in Khanaqin in northern Diyala province. In 2014 it briefly fell to ISIS but was later liberated.
“The Iraqi forces have been brought in from Mosul. They have entered the village and broken into our houses breaking the locks on the doors,” he said.
Gulala has 53 villages, of which 20 are inhabited with Kurds. Some Arabs confiscated the lands from the Kurds in the 1970s and 1980s.
Kurds from 20 villages around Gulala, who returned home since 2003 after the fall of Saddam Hussein, are under mounting pressure from Arabs to leave again after the October 2017 federal takeover.
Kurdish authorities in the region are aware of the moves hoping the Iraqi forces will withdraw once their operations have ended.
“They say they have come to inspect the area and then they withdraw,” said a local official. “We hope they carry out their duties per the commands they received.”
Hundreds of thousands of Kurds were displaced after Iraqi forces supported by Iran-backed Hashd al-Shaabi paramilitaries took control of disputed or Kurdistani areas like Khanaqin, Tuz Khurmatu, and Kirkuk in October 2017.
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