The commander of the Iraqi army’s Brigade 11 in late May sent a letter to the Kirkuk agriculture department, asking them to make land in several villages south of Kirkuk available to be turned into military bases and residential units for the soldiers.
Kurdish and Turkmen farmers in the area have strongly opposed the possibility of losing their lands once again, similar to what happened to them during the reign of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
Speaking to Rudaw’s Ranj Sangawi, Sami Ghafour, representative of Kirkuk’s Kurdish farmers, said that the army is still planning to proceed with the project despite their ongoing contention.
“The decree is still in progress and nothing has changed… The only thong stopping the project from being carried out is the tents we have set up in protest,” he said.
The lands consist of approximately 13 thousand dunams.
In addition to refusing the invasion of their lands, many of the farmers also say they are not prepared to give up the lands as it is their only source of income, calling on Kurdish authorities to come to their aid.
“Giving up these lands means giving up our lives… All our lives and livelihoods depend on these lands,” Ghafour added.
The Kurdish farmers say that are being prohibited by the Iraqi army soldiers from carrying out their agricultural activities.
“The army has become a tool to stop our agricultural activities… We have went to the Kirkuk Operations Command asking them to allow us to harvest our wheat, but they tell us that they have letter from the defense ministry prohibiting them from allowing us to conduct our work,” said Mohammed Amin, a Kurdish farmer.
Similar thoughts were echoed by the Turkmen farmers, calling for more unity among Kurds and Turkmen as they have both been prosecuted in Iraq since Hussein’s regime.
“A new government system has been established in Iraq for 20 years, but the decisions from the Baath time have still not been nullified and we have not gained back ownership of our lands, and for this we do not only blame Baghdad but rather we blame Kurdish and Turkmen officials as well who have not worked seriously on this matter” stated Hussein Mardan, representative of the Shiite Turkmen farmers.
Sabah Sheikh Habib, a Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) MP in the Iraqi parliament, cited the non-implementation of Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution as one of the main factors for the problems facing the farmers at the moment.
“The Kurdistan Regional Government and the political parties were not united on how to resolve the Article 140 issues… If the Kurdistan Region was keener on implementing Article 140 during discussions with Baghdad, the Article would have been implemented a long time ago,” said the lawmaker.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani in June ordered the formation of a specialized high committee to investigate the topic of the farmers’ lands in Kirkuk, after they had been protesting for nearly two weeks.
A decree from Hussein’s regime in 1975 expelled Kurdish and Turkmen farmers out of their lands in south of Kirkuk, transferring the ownership of the properties to the defense ministry and the municipality.
The Kurds and Turkmen came back to re-inhabit the land following the fall of Hussein’s Baath regime in 2003. The Iraqi Council of Ministers issued a decree in 2012 calling for annulling all decisions from the body in charge of northern Iraq affairs during the Baath regime’s reign.
The 2012 decree was never fully implemented, causing problems for the Kurdish and Turkmen farmers in Kirkuk following the Iraqi army’s 2017 takeover of the city as there have been multiple attempts to take advantage of anti-minority bills and decrees issued under the Baath regime.
Article 140 of the Iraqi Constitution has been one of the most controversial topics relating to the disputed areas in the war-torn country since the drafting of the constitution in 2005, as the failure to fully implement it has been cited as one of the main reasons for the continued attempts at demographic change.
The Article calls for the dispute over areas in the provinces of Diyala, Kirkuk, Nineveh, and Salahaddin to be resolved, and includes measures aimed at rectifying Arabization policies implemented under the rule of Hussein. It specifies that this process needs to be implemented by no later than the end of 2007, yet it remains to be fully applied around 15 years after that date.
