Iraq
Qahtan al-Wandawi, a member of Iraqi Turkmen Front in Kirkuk, speaking to Rudaw on February 6, 2025. Photo: Rudaw/screengrab
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A member of Iraqi Turkmen Front in Kirkuk on Thursday criticized the Federal Supreme Court’s recent suspension of a law that aims to return lands confiscated under the Baath regime to their original Kurdish and Turkmen owners.
Qahtan al-Wandawi told Rudaw that the suspension of the Property Restitution Law “will deepen divisions in Kirkuk,” highlighting the “unified stance” of Kurds and Turkmen on the law. He reiterated his bloc’s support for the law, which seeks to “reverse the unjust resolutions” made by the dissolved Baath Party, particularly those that “targeted Kurdish and Turkmen farmers.” He thundered that “the true owners of the land will not give up an inch of it” and described the Turkmen farmers’ inability to cultivate their own lands as an “economic war against them.”
Iraq’s top court Federal Supreme Court on Tuesday temporarily suspended the implementation of the Property Restitution Law along with two others concerning general amnesty and personal status. The decision followed a complaint from nearly a dozen Iraqi lawmakers who argued that the voting procedures on the three laws were invalid.
Wandawi expressed surprise about the “political interventions, pressures and attempts to block the law through the federal court.” He argued that its implementation would resolve a long-standing issue in Kirkuk and that the “Turkmen people, parties and political blocs are actively working to return the [confiscated] lands to their [rightful] owners.”
He also referenced the dispute that erupted on Wednesday between Iraq’s top judicial bodies - the Federal Supreme Court and the Supreme Judicial Council - over the court’s decision to suspend the implementation of the laws. According to Wandawi the latter row adds another layer to the problem.
Iraqi lawmakers voted on the Kirkuk land restitution law on January 21. The multi-ethnic regions in Iraq known as the disputed areas - and notably include the oil-rich Kirkuk province - have long been a source of contention between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and the Iraqi government. In the 1970s, Kurdish and Turkmen lands were seized by the Baath regime under the pretext they were located in restricted oil zones. The land was given to Arabs who were resettled in those areas altering their demographic makeup.
Following the fall of the Baath regime in 2003, Iraq adopted a policy of de-Arabization under Article 140 of the constitution, aiming to reverse the demographic changes imposed by former dictator Saddam Hussein.
In July 2023, the federal Council of Ministers unanimously approved a draft law to annul all Baath-era rulings that had confiscated agricultural lands from Kurds and Turkmen in Kirkuk. However, restoring the land to its original owners requires the implementation of the latest legislation.
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